TAB New Zealand (TAB NZ) provides the first monthly trading update for the 2021/2022 financial year, with the results and highlights for August 2021. 

Although the TAB was able to operate successfully through its online channels during August’s Alert Level 4 lockdown, as discussed below, there were significant revenue-related impacts due to domestic racing being shut down, as well as the TAB’s retail and gaming networks being closed. These challenges have remained to an extent during September, as Alert Level restrictions have continued (albeit with some relaxation outside of the Auckland Region). The lack of any domestic racing being held from August 18, due to the lockdown, has also materially impacted offshore bookmaking fees and betting levy repeal monies received by the racing codes. 

The TAB and industry in general remains in a much more robust position financially than during last year’s nationwide lockdown, however, this continues to be a rapidly evolving situation and an aura of caution is naturally at play when assessing future potential trading conditions and subsequent flow-on effects to profit distribution. 

Despite the impact of lockdown on trading in August, the TAB NZ Board has held distributions at budgeted levels pending further clarification of alert level implications over the coming weeks. Although betting performance has been relatively strong through the first half of September, continued closure of Auckland retail and gaming in particular present material challenges for the business and will require continued monitoring and further assessment at the appropriate time. 

Wagering Performance Summary 

In August the key performance results for TAB were impacted by the nationwide Alert Level 4 lockdown, with turnover, gross betting revenue and net betting revenue all below Budget for the month. Turnover of $180.1m was $18.0m below Budget and $28.1m below last year. Total Gross Betting Revenue was $27.8m, $3.7m below Budget and at a margin of 15.4 percent. 

Racing

Average NZ thoroughbred starters per race was 9.6, below the FY21 average of 11.3, while the peak turnover for a domestic meeting was $2.20m on 14 August at Riccarton. Harness average starters per race was 9.0, below the FY21 average of 10.8, while the peak meeting turnover of $0.9m was on 15 August at Oamaru. For greyhound racing, the average starters per race was 7.7, matching the FY21 average, while the peak turnover for a domestic meeting was $529k on 12 August at Addington. The total margin for all New Zealand racing was 18.7 percent, slightly above the FY21 New Zealand racing margin of 18.2 percent. Overseas racing margin was 19.3 percent, in line with the FY21 average of 19.2 percent.

Sport

The top three sports events by turnover were the two All Blacks vs Wallabies test matches ($1.52m across both matches) followed by the Warriors vs the Raiders game on 27 August ($0.5m). The margin on options selected by customers across sports continued to vary with the in-play sports delivering a gross betting margin of 6.7 percent with football remaining the major driver of in-play performance, accounting for 26 percent of in-play turnover at 6.1 percent. The pre-match singles margin was 15.6 percent, with rugby league accounting for 37 percent of pre-match turnover at a margin of just under 25 percent, offset by rugby union (13 percent of sports turnover) at 14 percent and football (16 percent of sports turnover) at 1.1 percent. Sports Multi margin was low at 12.8 percent, driven by lower than average margins across rugby union, rugby league and football.

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August Operational Performance 

• Reported Profit for the month was $8.7m, which was $3.0m below Budget.
• Operating Expenses were $9.2m for the month, which was $0.7m below Budget.
   

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August Distributions

Racing Codes were paid $11.1m in distributions and other payments for August, versus $11.9m 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

Date	Venue	Race No.	Race description	Turnover
7-Aug	Riccarton Park	R7	Winning Edge Presentations 124th Winter Cup (G3)	$512K
28-Aug	Caulfield	R6	W.W. Cockram Stakes (G3)	$469K
28-Aug	Caulfield	R8	Moet & Chandon Memsie Stakes (G1)	$444K
21-Aug	Randwick	R8	Winx Stakes (G1)	$431K
14-Aug	Riccarton Park	R9	Millennium Hotels & Resorts	$337K
21-Aug	Randwick	R10	Darwin Turf Club Trophy	$335K
14-Aug	Riccarton Park	R8	Heatstore Open Handicap	$335K
28-Aug	Caulfield	R9	Filter Form Handicap	$312K
14-Aug	Riccarton Park	R7	D Reynolds Electrical Winter Classic	$308K
14-Aug	Riccarton Park	R10	SI Racing Awards 17 September 2000	$308K

 

Top 10 Sporting events by turnover

Date	Code	Event	Turnover
14-Aug	Rugby Union	New Zealand v Australia	$815K
7-Aug	Rugby Union	New Zealand v Australia	$703K
27-Aug	Rugby League	New Zealand Warriors v Canberra Raiders	$541K
22-Aug	Rugby League	Brisbane Broncos v New Zealand Warriors	$497K
19-Aug	Rugby League	Gold Coast Titans v Melbourne Storm	$455K
28-Aug	Rugby League	Melbourne Storm v Parramatta Eels	$421K
27-Aug	Rugby League	Sydney Roosters v South Sydney Rabbitohs	$381K
20-Aug	Rugby League	Canberra Raiders v Manly Sea Eagles	$379K
29-Aug	Rugby League	Penrith Panthers v Wests Tigers	$373K
29-Aug	Rugby League	Manly Sea Eagles v Canterbury Bulldogs	$372K