Snowden: ESPN Bet ‘opportunity of the century’
Snowden at ESPN Edge, Wynn Macau bounce, Super Group earnings, MGM analyst reaction +More
Penn’s Snowden talks up betting hopes at ESPN in-house jamboree.
Ball of confusion: Wynn drops on mixed earnings messaging.
Super Group says US positioning is still nascent.
Bright lights: MGM analyst reaction.
BettingJobs’ Jobsboard includes CTO and marketing manager positions.
Give up yourself unto the moment.
Opportunity knocks
‘This isn’t something ESPN wants to do; this is something ESPN has to do.’
How does he love me? Penn Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden took to the stage at ESPN’s Edge event, which took place in New New York last night, to extol the extent to which the sports broadcaster and parent Disney is leaning into next Tuesday’s launch of ESPN Bet.
“I get asked the question all the time,” he told ESPN’s vice-president for sports betting & fantasy Mike Morrison during a softball Q&A.
“How important is this to Disney? Does ESPN even care? And now we can stop speculating. Now we can finally say you'll see next week how much they care.”
Shotgun wedding: The launch comes just four months after the deal between the two was announced in early August. Snowden revealed that conversations between him and ESPN chair Jimmy Pitaro only began “earlier this year” and said it was a “really interesting first meeting”.
“It was crystal clear to me in that conversation that the ESPN Sports fan who visits ESPN’s platforms every day… they have to leave ESPN’s ecosystem and go somewhere else to place the bet.”
“We feel like the UI and UX we’ve been working on since we went live with our own tech stack in Ontario (with theScore Bet), that we can take this to the next level of features and functionalities.”
Morrison said this “high level of connectivity” between media and betting “doesn’t exist anywhere in the [US] market today”.
Snowden pointed out that in Ontario almost three-quarters of all wagers on theScore Bet “started with people that were in the media ecosystem”.
“Sports bettors in America today view sports betting as a major piece of the sports entertainment experience.”
Fan friction: Snowden noted the extent to which he expected ESPN Bet to be able to tap into the content and IP of the parent and also the fantasy database with on-air talent lined up to advertise the offering as of next week.
Morrison added that “so much about betting is storytelling”. “You’ll begin to see a deeper lean in editorially to betting.”
Snowden said ESPN “really appreciates that it’s always about what the fan wants, and the fan wants a betting experience as part of their sports consumption that is frictionless”.
👀 1: Chris Grove notes on X that Disney’s current cost-savings drive means there will be “no free rides for Penn” with integrations.
👀 2: ESPN Bet’s Nov 14 launch date coincides with DraftKings’ investor day.
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Wynn drop
Difference of opinion: Analysts were somewhat at a loss to explain the post-close drop in the Wynn Resorts’ share price after a generally well-received earnings call. “The common refrain… was one of confusion,” said the team at Deutsche Bank, as the stock dropped over 5% AMC.
The team suggested the reaction was explained by “lighter than expected” Macau earnings and a “disregarded” Vegas beat.
Look to the positives: The share price reaction came after what was on the face of it a positive Q3 call, with the company producing an 88% leap in revenue to $1.67bn and adj. EBITDA soaring over 200% to $530.4m.
The operator was helped by the Macau bounce back, with both the Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace properties returning to an adj. EBITDA profit in Q3 compared to losses the year previous or 85% of pre-pandemic levels.
CEO Craig Billings noted a difference between the two, with the Palace now back to 2019 levels but the Wynn Macau property having shipped market share on the 2019 comparison.
Frenzy: Las Vegas was up 14% to $619m with the only blip being the Encore Boston, down 1% to $210m. Billings said trading in Las Vegas was “frenetic” in Q3 and the team “continues to be at the top of our game”.
“While it certainly is an increasingly complex world out there between inflation, rates, geopolitics, things continue to feel pretty good around here,” he added.
Looking ahead to next week’s F1 spectacle, he added the company had seen “more front money and credit lined up for this event than any event in the history of Wynn Las Vegas”.
The comments come as the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported room rates for the weekend are falling.
Gulf balls: In the UAE, Billings noted the recent “chatter” around the opportunity in the region. “We believe it's highly unlikely that every Emirate will ultimately avail themselves of the right to host an integrated resource,” he said.
Noting “a whole bunch of reasons” from “cultural nuances to population density to varying degrees of need for the additional visitation”
“Our view is that it will likely be us and us alone for a multi-year period, given that we are well underway on construction now,” he added.
🫤 Wynn falls post-market close
Super Group
Awareness levels: Talking about the still nascent US market positioning, Super Group CEO Neal Menashe said the company was well aware that “significant amounts” would need to be invested in the US for it to succeed.
The company is currently operating in four of the nine states where it is licensed.
COO Richard Hasson said Super Group would look at each state on a “returns-driven basis”.
“It is competitive,” he added. “But we do have the track record of being successful in other markets around the world.”
One is Ontario, where Menashe said the company had seen a YoY advance for the first time since the market regulated.
North American revenues were up 9% to $134m, or 28% of total revenues, which rose 16% to $357m. Operational EBITDA rose 8% to $53.8m.
Contingency consideration: The main revenue driver was Africa and the Middle East segment, though, up 42% to €100m. Daniel Stone from GamblingCompliance went on X yesterday to suggest the bulk of the growth in Africa was due to the near quadrupling of what it called fixed-odds contingency products.
The earnings report small print said these were casino-style games available in certain jurisdictions.
Stone argued the jurisdiction in question was South Africa, where Super Group operates under a Western Cape bookmaker license.
MGM analyst takes
Bryter layter: Analysts are generally sold on the potential for Las Vegas next year. The outlook in Las Vegas is “still bright”, said the team at CBRE, while Truist noted the “setup for 2024 looks promising”. Moreover, as the team at Macquarie said, the company is well-positioned to execute on the growth opportunities in online, New York and Japan.
JMP said each would act as “multi-year cash flow events”.
“The slew of projects are supported by a strong balance sheet, ample liquidity and cash flow able to fund these projects,” the team added.
Nit-picking: Wells Fargo said the only slight worry was the commentary around further investment into BetMGM. as management acknowledged on the call that the sportsbook product “wasn’t where it needed to be”. Wells Fargo said the unit “should still be profitable” in H223 but 2024 could be a “modest investment year”.
Earnings in brief
Light & Wonder: A 13th consecutive quarter of growth in the North American install base was the highlight for the gaming segment where revenues rose 11% YoY to $465m, while the newly incorporated SciPlay unit saw 15% revenue growth to $196m and iGaming was up 21% to $70m..
It meant total revenue was up 12% to $731m and adj. EBITDA rose 22% to $286m.
Jefferies said the results showed L&W “building momentum”.
Galaxy Entertainment: The operator of the StarWorld and Galaxy Macau properties said revenue of HK$9.7bn ($1.2bn) and adj. EBITDA of HK$2.8bn was at 76% and 67% of 2019 levels respectively.
Bragg Gaming: Revenue for Q3 rose 8% YoY to €22.6m with adj. EBITDA up 71% to €3.8m, helped by what the company said was “disciplined expense management”. FY23 guidance for revenue growth of 13% YoY and adj. EBITDA growth of 32% at midpoint was reaffirmed.
Analyst takes
DoubleDown Interactive: Macquarie said the “main takeaway” from Q3 was the closing of the SuprNation acquisition. The team believed SuprNation is currently ~breakeven at EBITDA level and will “take a few quarters before turning profitable”.
It means that while they are forecasting lower social casino revenues given the marketing pullback, that will be offset by the SuprNation contribution.
The shares week – Flutter
🤷 Investors were less than keen on the messaging around FanDuel’s lower-than-expected NGR margin rate of 6.8%. Wells Fargo said the NGR margin miss reflected unfavorable sporting results plus “potentially more promos/boosts”.
Despite emphasizing that FanDuel’s share of NGR was up 5 ppts in the quarter to 47%, vs. a 2 ppts fall in GGR to 40%, investors clobbered the shares with a 10%+ decline on the day.
🚧 Flutter takes a fall post-Q3 trading update
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What we’re reading
Not all sweetness and lightshow: Sphere posts a $98.4m loss, as CFO walks following a “bout of yelling and screaming from CEO James Dolan”.
Newslines
MGM Resorts is reported to have reached a deal with the Culinary Union in Las Vegas over a new pay deal. This follows Caesars’ deal with the union earlier in the week.
IGT announced a multi-year PlaySports technology and services agreement with Ponce Plaza Hotel & Casino in Puerto Rico.
Elys Game Technology has reached a market access agreement with Caesars Entertainment for Colorado, Elys’ first North American market.
Calendar
Nov 13: Genius Sports
Nov 14: DraftKings investor day
Nov 15: Codere Online, Better Collective (e), FansUnite, Gambling.com Group
Nov 16: Better Collective (call)
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