TAB New Zealand (TAB NZ) provides the fifth monthly trading update for the 2021/2022 financial year, with the results and highlights for December 2021.
The TAB continued to be able to operate successfully through its online and available retail channels through December, as New Zealand adjusted to the red and orange settings of the Covid-19 Protection Framework/Traffic Light System. Solid results on Boxing Day, combined with crowds returning to traditional holiday race meetings, ensured the TAB’s performance through the final days of 2021 was positive, with turnover up on both budget and last year’s turnover.
Turnover on Boxing Day, with four strong domestic meetings, went close to the $20 million mark, with $19.4m wagered on the day. About 51,000 unique accounts were active with bets placed on the day, up from 48,000 in 2020. Turnover on the Boxing Day meeting at Ellerslie was $5.8m - materially in line with 2020, and $0.7m above the 2019 turnover.
Because of the good performance, and notwithstanding ongoing Covid-19-related challenges since the beginning of the financial year, the TAB NZ Board has been able to make total distributions ahead of budget to the year to date. With New Zealand moving to Red in the Traffic Light System at 11.59pm on Sunday, 23 January, the Board will continue to keep a close watch on potential developments and any flow-on effect to trading conditions and distributions.
Wagering Performance Summary
In December, the key performance results for TAB continued to trend positively. Turnover of $241.6m was 10.3% ($22.6m) up on Budget and Gross Betting Revenue of $38.1m was 7.7% up on Budget, at a Gross Betting Margin of 15.8%
Racing
Average NZ thoroughbred starters per race was 11.0, slightly above the Year To Date (YTD) average of 10.5, while the peak turnover for a domestic meeting was $5.68m on 26 December for the Boxing Day Races at Ellerslie. Harness average starters per race was 10.2, matching the YTD average, while the peak meeting turnover of $1.73m was on 29 December for the Banks Peninsula Trotting Club meeting at Motukarara Raceway. For greyhound racing, the average starters per race was 7.6, matching the YTD average, while the peak turnover for a domestic meeting was $476k on 27 December at Manukau.
The total margin for all New Zealand racing was 18.6 percent, slightly above the YTD domestic racing margin of 18.3 percent. Overseas racing margin was 18.5 percent, slightly above the YTD average of 18.3 percent.
Sport
The Ashes led the sporting events in December with the first three Ashes tests turning over a combined $1.69m. The margin on options selected by customers across sports continued to vary with the in-play sports delivering a gross betting margin of 7.3 percent. Basketball dominated in-play performance, accounting for 42 percent of in-play turnover at 7.0 percent margin. The pre-match singles margin was 7.2 percent, driven down by basketball (32 percent of pre-match sports turnover) at a margin of 5.5 percent and cricket (21 percent of pre-match sports turnover) at 6.4 percent. Sports Multi margin was 17.7 percent.
December Operational Performance
- Reported Profit for the month was $16.1m, which was $1.7m above Budget.
- Operating Expenses were $9.9m for the month, which was $0.2m below Budget.
- Year To Date (1 Aug 2021 to 31 Dec 2021) Reported Profit was $67.8m, which was in line with Budget and $12.4m below last year.
- Year To Date (1 Aug 2021 to 31 Dec 2021) Operating Expenses were $47.6m, which was $2.2m below Budget and $1.8m above last year.
December Distributions
Racing Codes were paid $17.7m in distributions and other payments for December, versus $15.1m budgeted. This consisted of TAB NZ Betting Profit (listed as Fixed Distribution in the table below), Offshore Bookmaker Commission Fees, which are based on actual turnover (termed Betting Information Use Charges (BIUC) in the table below), and Betting Duty/Levy repeal (including a one-off payment relating to the 2020/21 Financial Year for an under-accrual).
Top 10 Racing events by turnover
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Top 10 Sporting events by turnover
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