TAB New Zealand (TAB NZ) provides the third monthly trading update for the 2022/2023 financial year, with the results and highlights for October 2022.
The TAB operated through its online and retail channels throughout October, with no Covid-19 restrictions in retail and hospitality throughout the month. Turnover was up slightly on budget in October. Gross betting revenue (GBR) and gross betting margin (GBM) were below budget. Retail traffic continued to hold strong following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, and overall field sizes across all three codes were up on the year-to-date average, but other factors - including race abandonments, intense competitive pressure from unregulated online offshore operators and lower average bet size in key customer segments as economic conditions tighten - contributed to a mixed result.
Because of the above factors and the continued economic challenges that are forecast to continue for some time, the TAB NZ Board has signalled to the racing codes that it will reduce distributions by nine percent in the 2022/23 financial year (year ended 31 July 2023). Factoring in other distributions derived through New Zealand racing, overall distributions will be around $160m for this financial year.
Wagering Performance Summary
In October, the third month of the 2022/23 financial year, turnover of $239.4m was 2.7% ($6.2m) above budget. GBR of $36.4m was down on budget by 3.9% ($1.5m) and GBM of 15.2% was 1.0 percentage point below budget.
Racing
Average NZ thoroughbred starters per race was 10.6, above the YTD average of 10.3, while the peak turnover for a domestic meeting was $4.0m on 15 October at Hastings for the Livamol Classic. Harness average starters per race was 10.6, above the YTD average of 9.9, while the peak meeting turnover of $1.7m was on 24 October at Ashburton. For greyhound racing, the average starters per race was 7.3, matching the YTD average, while the peak turnover for a domestic meeting was $466k on 13 October at Addington.
Sport
The top sporting event by turnover for October was the NRL final between Penrith Panthers and Parramatta Eels with turnover of $1.49m. Basketball was the leading in-play sporting code accounting for 30% of in-play turnover while football (19%), rugby union (16%) and basketball (16%) were the top pre-match singles sporting codes by turnover.
October Operational Performance
- Reported Profit for the month was $12.0m, which was $3.1m below Budget.
- Operating Expenses were $11.1m for the month, which was $1.1m above Budget.
- Year to Date Reported Profit is $33.6m, which was $5.6m below Budget
- Year to Date Operating Expenses were $32.1m, which was $1.6m above budget.
October Distributions
Racing Codes were paid $16.7m in distributions and other payments for October, versus $16.4m 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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