TAB NZ posts turnover of US$163.5m for November

Turnover was slightly above budget but gross betting margin came in below expectations.

New Zealand.- TAB NZ has shared its financial results for November. It posted a turnover of NZ$260.9m (US$163.5m), 7.3 per cent (NZ$17.7m) above budget. Gross betting revenue (GBR) was NZ$40.6m (US$25.4m), up on budget by 1.7 per cent (NZ$0.5m). Gross betting margin (GBM) was 15.6 per cent, 0.9 percentage points below budget.

Turnover was up on a budget in November, following a strong Melbourne Cup, NZ Trotting Cup and the continuing Football World Cup. The top sporting event by turnover was the Rugby World Cup final featuring the New Zealand Black Ferns and England Red Roses (NZ$1.2m).

Basketball was the leading in-play sporting code accounting for 35 per cent of in-play turnover while Football was the top pre-match singles sporting code with 37 per cent of turnover. 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.

However, continued competitive pressure from unregulated online offshore operators, reduced betting margins and lower average bet size in key customer segments had an effect. Overseas racing and sports drove the increased turnover, leading to increased payments and levies for these products.

The TAB NZ Board signalled to the racing codes in early December that it will reduce distributions by nine per cent 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 NZ$160m for this financial year.

Average NZ thoroughbred starters per race were 10.8, above the YTD average of 10.5, while the top three domestic meetings were the Cup Week meetings at Riccarton with a combined turnover of NZ$10.8m. Harness average starters per race were 10.5, above the YTD average of 10.1, while the peak meeting turnover of $7.35m was on 8 November for the IRT NZ Trotting Cup Day at Addington. 

For greyhound racing, the average starters per race were 7.5, slightly above the YTD average of 7.4, while the peak turnover for a domestic meeting was NZ$1.07m on 10 November for the New Zealand Greyhound Cup meeting at Addington.

Racing Codes were paid NZ$17.6m in distributions and other payments for November, versus NZ$16.7m 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.