Tab NZ again fell short of its monthly profit budget in November despite surpassing its gross betting revenue (GBR) target for the month.
Tab NZ, New Zealand’s sports betting monopoly, said while major events such as football’s 2022 Fifa World Cup, horse racing’s Melbourne Cup and the NZ Trotting Cup helped it to surpass turnover and GBR levels, gross betting margin and profit missed budget.
Retail traffic continued to hold strong following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions and the overall field size across all three codes was up on the year-to-date average. Other factors such as continued competitive pressure from unregulated offshore operators, reduced betting margin and lower average bet size in key customer segments impacted the figures.
Tab NZ had already warned in early December that due to it missing budgets a number of times in recent months, it would have to reduce distributions to racing codes across New Zealand by 9% for the 2022-23 financial year ending 31 July 2023.
As such, the monopoly expects to distribute NZ$160.0m (£84.1m/€95.5m/US$101.4m) for the year.
Tab NZ revenue ahead of budget
Looking at the November performance, gross betting revenue was 1.3% ahead of the November budget at $40.6m, although gross betting margin missed budget by 0.9% at 15.6% for the month.
Reported profit amounted to $14.0m, below a budget of $15.7m by 10.8%. Betting profit was $12.4m, missing a $14.1m budget, although gaming profit reached its target budget of $1.6m.
Operating expenses were $400,000 ahead of a $10.6m monthly budget, while distributions and payments were $900,000 above a budget of $17.6m, despite the decision to reduce this financial year’s payments.
Tab NZ noted that the Melbourne Cup was by far the most popular racing event during the month, producing a turnover of $11.5m, while the rugby union clash between New Zealand Women and England Women on 12 November topped the sports event charts with $1.2m in turnover.
