TAB New Zealand (TAB NZ) provides the fourth monthly trading update for the 2021/2022 financial year, with the results and highlights for November 2021.
The TAB continued to be able to operate successfully through its online and available retail channels through November. The highlight of the month was the 2021 edition of the Melbourne Cup, which produced a record day for betting with TAB NZ on the iconic race, won this year by the New Zealand-bred mare Verry Elleegant for the Kiwi-bred trainer/jockey combination of Chris Waller and James McDonald. Active customers on the day through digital channels topped 108,000 - the first time more than 100,000 customers have been active on Melbourne Cup Day or any day in the TAB’s history. Turnover on the race was strong with $11.7 million bet on the Cup itself, up 1% on last year’s record figure. Turnover for the day reached $26.5 million across all meetings, right in line with last year’s record result, despite a significant number of retail outlets still being closed.
Even with on-course attendance at Addington being severely limited, wagering on the IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup meeting on 9 November held up well in spite of these challenging trading conditions on the back of last year’s record meeting. Betting through accounts increased, with a seven percent increase in account bettors from a record high of 40,000 in 2020 to 43,000 this year. The day’s overall activity across all betting of $10.9 million was just $400,000 down on last year’s record figure of $11.3 million, with one less race held at Addington this year compared to 2020.
The TAB and industry continue to maintain a more robust position financially compared to during 2020’s nationwide lockdown. The TAB NZ Board has continued to hold distributions at budgeted levels through the first quarter and this has been maintained through November.
Following the move to the Covid-19 Protection Framework/Traffic Light System on 3 December, TAB NZ will keep a close watch on the trading conditions.
Wagering Performance Summary
In November, the key performance results for TAB held firm despite heightened Alert Levels remaining in place. Turnover of $248.9m was 8.5% ($19.6m) up on Budget and Gross Betting Revenue of $39.2m was 4.3% up on Budget, despite the Gross Betting Margin of 15.8% sitting just below Budget of 16.4%.
Racing
Average NZ thoroughbred starters per race was 11.1, above the Year To Date (YTD) average of 10.4, while the peak turnover for a domestic meeting was $5.86m on 13 November for New Zealand Cup Day at Riccarton. Harness average starters per race was 10.6, above the YTD average of 10.2, while the peak meeting turnover of $5.61m was on 9 November for the New Zealand Trotting Cup meeting at Addington. For greyhound racing, the average starters per race was 7.7, tracking with the YTD average of 7.6, while the peak turnover for a domestic meeting was $730k on 11 November (New Zealand Greyhound Cup night) at Addington. The total margin for all New Zealand racing was 17.8 percent, slightly below the YTD New Zealand racing margin of 18.1 percent. Overseas racing margin was 15.5 percent, below the YTD average of 18.2 percent.
Sport
Four sporting events exceeded $500k this month - the first test match between India and the Black Caps ($944k), All Blacks versus France ($829k), Black Caps versus Australia in the T20 World Cup final ($616k), and All Blacks versus Ireland ($517k). The margin on options selected by customers across sports continued to vary with the in-play sports delivering a gross betting margin of 7.6 percent. Basketball, Football and cricket were the main drivers of in-play performance, accounting for a combined 64 percent of in-play turnover at 6.2, 11.8 and 6.8 percent margin respectively. The pre-match singles margin was 15.5 percent, driven up by Rugby Union (18 percent of pre-match turnover) at a margin of 30 percent and Football (14 percent of sports turnover) at 22.1 percent, offset by Cricket (20 percent of pre-match turnover) at 3.3 percent. Sports Multi margin was 24.0 percent.
November Operational Performance
- Reported Profit for the month was $15.4m, which was $0.7m above Budget.
- Operating Expenses were $9.9m for the month, which was $0.3m below Budget.
- Year To Date (1 Aug 2021 to 30 Nov 2021) Reported Profit was $51.8m, which was $1.6m below Budget and $9.5m below last year.
- Year To Date (1 Aug 2021 to 30 Nov 2021) Operating Expenses were $37.7m, which was $2.0m below Budget and $1.0m above last year.
November Distributions
Racing Codes were paid $16.1m in distributions and other payments for November, versus $15.3m 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.
Top 10 Racing events by turnover
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Top 10 Sporting events by turnover
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