Betmakers Technology Group Ltd (BET) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

So thank you all for joining us for the Betmakers Technology Group Investor Webinar. On the call today, I am joined by President and Executive Chairman, Matt Davey; and our CEO, Jake Henson, who will be running you through the results presentation. Matt, I now hand over to you.

Thank you, Jane, and thanks, everyone, for your time today. We can jump to Slide 3, Jane. So at Betmakers, we simplify betting our mission is to power excitement, growth and sustainability of the wager market globally. Turn to next slide. So over the last 36 months, the company has experienced rapid growth. We now are active in over 30 countries worldwide. We have a 60 online wagering operators, 225 racing partners, operate in 45 regulated jurisdictions. And as of June 30 this year, we had 456 employees situated at 11 offices around the world. Next slide. The company delivers its services through 2 primary divisions and one support division, Global Betting Services, which represents our platform development, fixed odds pricing and managed trading services alongside our global tote products, which includes the quantum tote engine, award-leading tote engine -- tote-hosting and also retail venue services for our racing partners around the world. And this is all supported by our global rating network, which we offer our official pricing race day controls, right partnerships and integrity platform. Next slide. So for the full year 2023, our highlights include a significant investment in the development of our wagering platform and managed trading technology. We have experienced significant progress on the international fixed odds racing product throughout the U.S. and other international markets. We have been able to expand our content distribution rights and partnerships around the world, including a strong relationship in place with Stronach's 1/ST Content Technology division. We have also restructured the Board and management to help accelerate the delivery of our optimized business model. And most importantly, we've commenced the program to reduce and optimize the company's cost base. This has allowed us to deliver $95 million in full year '23 revenue, which represents a 3.7% growth versus FY '22. And $99 million in cash receipts from customers, which is a 7.3% increase over 2022 and a cash balance of $41 million at the end of June 30. I want to be very clear, this includes restricted cash from our customers. So net unrestricted cash is $31.4 million that the company considers our cash. Next slide. Thanks, Jane. Let me hand over to Jake to walk you through the business.

Thanks, Matt, and thanks to our shareholders for listening in today. I'll start with some core management focus for the rest of the year, and then we'll dive into those in a little bit more detail in the slides to follow. The first point is around we'll continue to focus on simplifying our global operating model. That is within our people structure but also how we run our operations within the business with the end goal here being to drive efficiencies and scale. Part of that scale will be through our technology, and that's the second pillar for us. That's underpinned by our next-gen technology, which is a culmination of a lot of hard work. And basically, what will underpin how [ it service ] our customers globally via our platform solutions anyway moving forward. The next is to deliver simply on the current contracted pipeline of opportunities, of which I'll detail shortly. We've got a strong pipeline that we think can support our growth and also showcase our new technology moving forward. And finally, we do want to continue to invest strategically into our growth segments, particularly as it relates to international fixed odds in the global tote. Next slide, thank you, Jane. So just touching on that operating model. As Matt mentioned, in February, the company announced some structural changes. Really, this was to better align the business focus and just streamline the way all of our global operations run. With this kind of renewed focus around a core group of products. And that core group of products, we believe, it's a large addressable market, and we think that the products that we really want to scale off moving forward. We can just go to the next slide now. Thanks, Jane. So our next-gen technology and how we'll drive our operating scale through that. So that makers has 40-plus digital customers globally. At the moment, those customers operate on a variety of different technology stacks and technology solutions. And the next-generation tech build is designed to be the catchall that will replace all those and basically put us in a position where we can service a global suite of customers from a core base. This gives us much more efficiency from our technology and product staff but also allows us to deliver a much better product for customers. So this is a long tail project over the next 18 months, but we do anticipate to get movement on that within the next reporting periods. The other one to call out here is the consolidation of our racing data offerings. So this is a streamlined single integration and a combination of all of the businesses that have been brought into the Betmakers stable either by M&A or via product development, products such as DynamicOdds, Form Cruncher and Punting Form. This will give operators, punters and industry experts a one-stop shop via our API to get all their racing data needs. Next slide. Thank you, Jane. So touching on the current opportunities and the focus around delivering on those in the short term, we've highlighted a few here from each of our divisions. The first thing, the Norway tote contract with Rikstoto. This is a long tail build, but also a long contract. It's a 10-year contract to basically replace the national tote system in Norway, a complex build, but global tote, as Matt mentioned, is widely deployed, particularly within the Nordics, where there's a lot of very bet types that require specialist integration. This is anticipated to go live in H2 of next year, and we'll underpin our strategy going forward with co-mingling in that area. We've also extended and secured key partnerships in the Americas. I've listed a few on screen there in Parx Racing, Penn Entertainment and Caesars that have various deliverables and contractual outcomes for us through the next reporting period. On to our Global Betting Services segment. There's 2 examples here of our embedded race book solution. The first is with Caesars and is centered around our venues, particularly in Nevada over the next 6 months, and that's the embedded pari-mutuel in service venues. And the embedded fixed-odds race book example is with TonyBet which is something that we've completed in recent weeks and look to roll out over the next half as well. So this is an example of our next-generation technology, basically a segment or a snippet of that being deployed into existing either sports books or points of sale, and therefore, we can deliver a turnkey race book experience for these customers. The final one listed on screener and the Global Racing Network section is the distribution of the Penn Entertainment content. And also Monmouth and our other racetrack partners. This is in conjunction with Stronach Group's 1/ST Content group. And basically, what it means is we get Betmakers racing and content partners into more parts around the globe, both on a pari-mutuel and co-mingling side, but also fixed odds wagering operators and media partners such as Sky Sports Racing in the U.K. Go to the next slide. Thank you, Jane. And I thought it would be good also to touch on an international fixed odds update. We believe this to be one of our key growth segments, not only in the 2 markets that we'll go into in some detail here but as it evolves over time into new and emerging markets. So the background on this, obviously, Betmakers has been appointed as the exclusive agent in these 2 markets listed on screen, New Jersey and Jamaica to be not only the manager, but foster the development of fixed odds and fixed odds race betting in these areas. And that comes with a broad reach of responsibilities, particularly around technology and how we tackle things like integrity and reporting solutions to give regulators and race track owners the comfort they need to develop the product. So better state of players to where we're at this stage. We've launched on course at Monmouth Park. This is by teller-and self-service terminals as well as online and the MonmouthBets app and digital offering. At Caymanas Park in Jamaica, where we've launched our teller and self-service terminals. I think it's important to note at this stage, while we continue to discuss fixed odds opportunities with new and emerging markets and states, certainly, the company's focus over the next 6 months is focusing on the established opportunities we have with these 2 and using that as a benchmark to leverage off going forward. Those next steps for both New Jersey and Jamaica, I'll run through now. So for New Jersey is to increase our content and product depth within the market for operators and also on the MonmouthBets app, is to generate strong metrics for sportsbooks to observe, things like first-time depositors, active users and revenue per users. We know a really strong metrics associated with racing that we want to highlight through the MonmouthBets app and use that to leverage and onboard sportsbooks over the journey. In Jamaica, we have our CaymanasBet platform that's currently subject to final regulatory approval with the regulator, that's obviously a big step to get into the digital realms. After that, we expand into Supreme Venture's OTB off-track betting shops throughout Jamaica with teller and self-service solution. And finally, onboard any sportsbooks in the jurisdiction, subject to licensing approvals. Next slide. Thank you, Jane. Before I hand back to Matt, I just want to touch on a little bit of the investment made through the last financial year as it relates to our future growth outcomes and certainly, Matt will unpack that a little bit more in the cost base slides to follow. So firstly, it's around our next-generation platform. I've touched on, obviously, the strategic rationale for this platform, but also how we're starting to deploy that with upcoming contracts. And then through all that is also the consolidation of the legacy tech platforms that we think drive a lot of operating efficiencies, but more importantly, deliver really strong and improved product to our customers globally. The next is around U.S. fixed odds, not only on the content side, but in our pricing, our localized racing data solutions and trading, we've made leaps and bounds forward in terms of our North American racing offering and how we can manage that from a trading standpoint. We've also had our product and technical delivery teams, readying themselves for the launch of the aforementioned Caesars and Norway tote solutions. Obvious, it becomes a delivery pipeline that has to line up with the contracted deliverables, but they're obviously nearing completion now. And over the last 6 to 12 months, we spent considerable resource and time and making sure that is in a state that we can really capitalize on those opportunities going forward. The last 2 to call out, throughout the period, we did achieve our ISO27001 certification. Not only does this strengthen our security and quality, but also enhances our reputation as it pertains to company and worldwide tenders, particularly in the tote world, there are often government run processes. We see this as a crucial element to our commercial suite. And the last one is around Punting Form, which is a sectional time and technology benchmarking business that we acquired throughout the reporting period. We see this as not only an incremental revenue base for the business, but also something that can drive the efficiency of our pricing and trading tools moving forward. And we'll also see a lot of the performance insights generated from that Punting Form technology starting to pop up on our next-generation platform, both here in Australia and in North America that we believe will be best in class. So with that, I'll hand back to Matt, who will unpack a little bit more around the cost base and the outlook for FY '24.

Thanks, Jake. So as you've heard, management have been focused through FY '23 on consolidating our platforms, reducing our expense base while preserving our top line revenue growth. Within our FY '23 negative EBITDA result of $28 million. I think it's important for our investors to understand that $7 million of those expenses were invested in international fixed odds, which we think is an incredible opportunity for the company and our shareholders, as Jake has touched on. In addition to that, we also have $8 million invested in products that we've developed that we expect to be able to generate future revenues. If you exclude that $15 million of investment, the true negative EBITDA result is around $13 million. So I think that's just a more accurate way to think about how the business is performing. We will be reviewing our accounting policies so that we can treat capitalized development expenses correctly so investors are able to get a better look at how the company is building out its asset base as the years progress. At this stage, we expense all development fees through the P&L, as you can see. Let's turn to the next slide. So after spending a significant amount of time with our investors, it was clear that we needed to better unpack how we see our expense base and how we see our revenue and expenses moving forward. So this is guidance for how the company is looking at the full year FY '24. We think that probably the cleanest set of expenses and revenue is to annualize the last half of FY '23. So you can see on the left-hand side of this graph, we have $130.9 million in full year FY '23 on an annualized basis from the second half of the year. When you exclude the exceptional items of $14.1 million and the staff reductions that the management team have delivered to date, we get at today's cost base of about $110.4 million. We have further targeted savings as we go through this optimization of the platform, restructuring of our cost base of another $4 million, and that gives us a target cost base of about $106.4 million. Within that, though, we have the same anticipated spend on our assets and our international revenue opportunities, particularly around fixed odds wagering of another $15 million. If you exclude that discretionary spend, our true cost base is around $91.4 million. Then I've tried to show as best we can what our revenue lines look like if you take the annualized revenue for the second half of last year. And then we are targeting low double-digit revenue growth for FY '24. You can see that on the final bar in this chart here to give our investors a sense of how we're thinking about full year FY '24. Okay. Jane, if we can jump to the next slide. So in summary, as we think about the year, we focused on reducing managing our cost base to under $110 million. we think that we can do so while still growing top line revenue and delivering a consolidated business with a single platform and simplifying our technology, which I think has significant benefits right throughout the business as well as to our customers. We are forecasting low double-digit revenue growth within that. And importantly, we finished the year with about $31.4 million in cash on balance sheet. We expect that we will maintain at least $20 million of net cash throughout the journey to complete out this restructuring and deliver the business with a positive EBITDA at the end of FY '24. So with that, let's hand back to Jane and dive into some questions.

Thank you, gentlemen. And again, webinar attendees, please use the Q&A function, which can be found at the bottom of your screen. Let me jump into them. So first one Matt, this has come through a few times. Just about a little bit of an update on Better. Perhaps, if you want to just provide an update to webinar attendees?

Yes. We were asked this question about Better, Better is an incredibly important customer of Betmakers. Obviously, their results and their numbers are private to business, and we won't be going to those just like any other of our customers. But importantly, they're going through the launch phase and start-up phase. They are paying us the minimum rates as per our contract, which we have previously disclosed is about $7.5 million per annum and doing well as they obviously create a new position in the marketplace.

Thank you, Matt. This one's for Jake. So a national and also a world tote seems to be where things will be going with a return to pari-mutuel betting. So do we have a future in this field? Or are we fixed odds centric?

Yes. Thanks, Jane. We definitely have a future in that field. I think I definitely support the, I guess, the noise and momentum in the market around global liquidity and pooled liquidity, and it's certainly be held by Betmakers and has been part of our strategy and structure for many years now that days back to the original inception of global tote. I think the future of pari-mutuel is certainly how we can connect partners globally to do that by a lightweight technology means and obviously, to get total products in front of digital audiences, which is something they've struggled to do over the last 10 years, [indiscernible] is a business we've invested heavily in, including through our next-generation platform, but also through our co-mingling capabilities in the business now, our global tote segment actually underpins a lot of the well pool initiatives between Hong Kong Jockey Club and U.K. Tote group. And certainly, going forward, we'll be at the forefront of any global co-mingling efforts and certainly supportive of it and the outcomes it can have for racing.

Thanks, Jake. Next one's for you as well, actually. So are we looking at expanding into the South American market? And if so, where are the opportunities here?

Yes. We absolutely would love to expand into the market, but it is important to note we actually already are in the market with a number of our racetrack partners, including Peru, Puerto Rico, obviously, in the Americas, and we actually do a lot of co-mingling in this region as well. In terms of growth and where the growth opportunities are, I think a lot of the noise and buzz around this area has been in Brazil in recent years. And certainly, how Brazil starts to regulate its online wagering space seems to be the largest opportunity in LatAm at the moment and for racing that's obviously to piggyback on to those soon to be regulated digital sportsbooks. I think that would be the best opportunity, and certainly, for Betmakers, we just need to position our products so that we can be the product of choice for those digital sportsbooks that are gaining a lot of traction in that area.

Thank you, Jake. This is actually a question for our CFO, Anthony Pullin, and it has come through a few times at me. So when do we expect to be cash flow positive?

Jane, thanks for that. Yes, I guess we've stated a number of times that generating positive operational cash flow is a focus for us this year. As covered by Jake earlier, I guess, we're still working through some of that operational review and cost out process, and we're also progressing towards delivering on some of our key contracts. So internally, I guess we see on executing on those 2 prongs. Following that we expect to be in a position to deliver positive operational cash flow.

Thank you, Anthony. Sorry, bear with me there's quite a few coming through. Matt, this one actually might be for you. So are you going to provide an update on the U.S. fixed bonds and any new states might be coming on board and the traction we've got so far.

Yes. Look, I think the market continues to develop over here. We are continuing to work with our stakeholders. There are a number of stakeholders in the racing industry, and we are seeing good strong forward progress clearly not as fast as we would like, but we are seeing other states start to move in that direction as well. Clearly, New Jersey is the market leader. Jake, do you want to expand a little on that?

Yes. So as we touched on in the slide, we're seeing New Jersey and [ Joker ] is our proving grounds for the model. There's definitely a lot of interest from other states and regions globally. But ultimately, we want to come to those guys with performance metrics, as I noted earlier, but also the right model in terms of how we can ensure everyone within the ecosystem gets a relevant part of the pie and that we've got the technology solutions to make it all happen. There's a strategic allocation to those new opportunities, new states and regions. But certainly, in the short term, it's about executing on what we've currently got unlocked and what we can control.

Thank you, gentlemen. Anthony another one for you. So beside reducing cost via employee reductions and [ Elena ] Office, where else does that see additional revenue and growth?

Yes. I think Jake's touched on this a little bit earlier in the presentation. In terms of additional revenue and growth, I think our focus currently is on those contracts, which we've already executed, bringing those markets, Rikstoto and realizing revenue from those contracts. And then secondly, using our existing technology suite and scaling it into new international markets.

Thank you, Anthony. Matt, actually this one's for you. So we've noticed a drop off in recent cover -- in recent research coverage from a number of semesters. Is there anything being done to pick this back up again?

Yes. No, great question. The company obviously was in the ASX 300. Dropping out of that, I think, has a different investor universe. We're also a tech business that has been historically unprofitable. I think that eliminates us from the screens of a number of the small cap institutional investor base. So what we are focused on, obviously, is cost reduction and then driving top line revenue growth. We're doing so in a very measured and considered matter. We are not trying to drive cost reductions at any price because we feel that the company is in a great position, both domestically and internationally and to be able to do that cost out while preserving low double-digit top line revenue growth, I think, is a good place to be. Clearly, we want to be further advanced. I think one of the points, Anthony didn't touch on earlier, is that we were doing this cost restructuring, had to work with a series of unions, and that has slowed down the actual cost out. Now we -- I think management have done a great job in working with them. We've got to a good position, but it's taking a little longer. Once we get through that process, as you can see in our FY '24 forecast as we're guiding, I think it opens up the business for a number of other institutional investors to come on board and certainly take a closer look at the business. So during that process, I'm spending a significant amount of time in outreach and talking to our investor group. You can see how we're now detailing our numbers in a different way, and I anticipate we will continue to improve how we display our numbers and explain them during the FY '24 period on our quarterly updates. So we look forward to, obviously, gaining additional investor support, but we have to earn that. And part of that comes from explaining what we're doing with the business in a clearer and cleaner way. And I think we're taking the first steps today to do so and we'll continue to do so.

Another one for you at Anthony. So on Slide 14 of the presentation, we mentioned that there's $7 million investment in 2024 on fixed odds. So where is that going to be deployed?

Sure. The majority of that deployment is on fixed odds opportunity in North America and probably more specifically within the state of New Jersey. In terms of what makes up that number, it's all the operational cost that's around building out and developing the product itself. So a large portion of content costs in there as well as general operating costs, which are directly attributable as I said, to bring in that fixed odds product to life in the U.S.

Thank you, Anthony. Next one, Matt, I might hand to you for this one. So given the challenges with expanding fixed odds in the US, will cost in this area be phased down or controlled instead of continuing to emphasize this area given the small proportion of the U.S. market racing represents?

No, I think it's an excellent question. Look, we are very mindful of the significant investment we're making in chasing the U.S. fixed odds racing opportunity. We've put obviously, an enormous amount of effort and cost into it over the last 24 months or so. We will continue to monitor that. I think the size of the price is significant for us. You can see the power of the fixed odds wagering or racing has achieved here in the Australian domestic market. We think once the environment is set up correctly in the U.S., we will see significant gains that will mirror the Australian experience. It clearly takes time. There are a large number of stakeholders that we need to get aligned on that. And the U.S. market, while it has 40,000 race in a year, it has 150 different racetracks, and it has different regulators in 50 different states. That's quite a bit, obviously, to organize. So we will continue to work on that. We think it is a significant opportunity for the business. And I think all of our shareholders would benefit from it. But should we take a view that we think it's 5 years or 10 years out and that we have better returns on the capital that we can invest in other areas, 100%, we will be doing that. We're not at that stage yet. We are continuing to see green shoots come through the U.S. So we will continue to course but part of identifying the investment and breaking up for investors, you can see what we are spending. And obviously, we look forward to bringing forward some good news around generating real revenues on the back of that. But if we feel that, that is not happening certainly in the time frame we are comfortable with we will absolutely reduce that discretionary spend.

Thank you, Matt. Another one that comes through a few times. So I'll stick with you. So do you expect a capital raise in the near future?

Look, that's a good question. And the answer is flat out, no. Not to drive the organic growth business. We've guided now that we think that baseline of our cash reserves is $20 million or greater, and that's fine for a business of our size. We have 0 debt. We are guiding to low double-digit top line revenue growth. We've got a cost out restructure that we're in the process of completing. So I think the company, from a P&L basis and a balance sheet basis is in good shape. Obviously, we'd like to see bigger numbers come through, but we are absolutely no interest in capital raise just to run the business. Should we see strategic opportunities, absolutely, we'll review them and consider them in regards to our shareholders. And so that is obviously something the Board discusses from time to time.

Thank you, Matt. Jake, I'm going to hand you this one. So what portion of the production in costs for FY '24 anticipated to come from staffing changes. This attendee has noted that we noticed recent headcount reductions from operators in the wagering space in Australia, Entain in particular.

Yes, sure. So I won't speak to Entain in great detail, but obviously, the size of Entain and Flutter globally, I think they continue to rationalize their staff base on a quarterly and half yearly results, just like the big 4 banks do too. So from our perspective, on the cost base slide that Matt ran through before, I believe it was Slide 14. We do call out what we expect to be some further reduction to play out through the upcoming quarter. How that looks going forward, one of the questions I've just had overlap that's relevant to that is how we can see that in our finances now and the upcoming quarters. Obviously, there will be a little bit of restructuring noise through that as we work through not only staffing but operational efficiencies. And I think the main takeaway is, obviously, we'll start to unpack that in more detail going forward in those quarterly like we have in that cost base extracted slide. And where we noted headcount to end up for our current base was actually in our quarterly update at the end of last month. And I think we floated that will be around 440 and as Matt mentioned, we're at 456 now. So a little bit better play out. And as touched on before, there's a union process as part of a wider operational restructure as well.

Thank you, Jake. Another one that's come through for you. So are people still approaching Betmakers for partnerships? Or are we at capacity in delivering in the existing partnerships that we have?

Yes, it's a good question. I think the key thing there is around capacity and focus. And one of the things Matt has certainly instilled on the team is to really narrow our focus going forward, but that doesn't stop or preclude us from identifying key partners out there. Obviously, during the last little period, we've announced our partnership with 1/ST Content in Stronach Group, which is really a key one. We anticipate that we will have a steady stream of new partnerships into new and emerging markets going forward that will obviously underpin our growth strategy with our international fixed odds and global tote. So certainly see a lot of inbound. It's around making sure that we strategically can make the right decisions and deploy our capital and time in the best way possible.

Thank you, Jake. Matt, I'm going to hand to you for this one. Perhaps you want to just reiterate to the webinar attendees, what shareholders should be looking forward to over the next 3 to 6 months and in particularly the upcoming quarterly reports.

Yes. Look, I encourage all our shareholders to go back and look through the presentation. Obviously, there will be a recording of this. We have guided to what we think the full year '24 outlook looks like both from an expense side as well as from a revenue side. Businesses don't operate on a quarterly basis. They don't deliver neat numbers month by month. So I anticipate there'll be still some noise coming through in our quarterly updates as we get through the restructuring process. I think what's important for our investors to understand is, a, we are reducing the complexity of our business. We are consolidating our technology platforms on the new technology that the company has invested in. I think that would deliver great results for the business over the long term. That takes some time. But the reduction in complexity, I think, has huge benefits with the business, and Jake has touched a little on those. We're doing so at the same time as preserving our revenue base and growing our revenue base. And that's key as well. It's easy to cut costs. It's hard to preserve revenue and grow the business. So we are managing the business through this restructuring. We believe we will deliver a company on a consolidated platform, fantastic new technology, truly international footprint and top line revenue growth that we hope obviously accelerate in the years to come. And outside of that, I don't think it's worth trying to provide quarterly guidance other than people can do the math themselves on the full year numbers that we've put in front of you.

Thank you, Matt. Sorry, there is just one more that's popped up. So Jake, I'm going to hand it to you. Do you want to just touch on the major competitors in the market?

Yes, sure. So we look at it in, I guess, different buckets. So the business revenue breakdown at the moment is loosely 33% Asia Pacific, 33% Rest of World and 33% America -- North America, sorry. And each of those segments has its own subset of competitors. That being said, in each of those markets, we actually work with our competitors quite actively. I think it goes back to our earlier point around well pool and global liquidity. I think ultimately, a competitive marketplace for everyone is delivering new solutions out there is a good thing for raising overall, and we believe that we can hold our own within that racing market overall, and that delivers the best result for Betmakers. So a lot of our competitors in some fronts, particularly on the tote side would be the Stronach Group, but we're also working with the Stronach Group in our distribution and global racing network to deliver better outcomes for racetracks overall. So there are plenty of competitors out there, but also plenty of opportunities for partnerships within that.

Wonderful. Gentlemen, I think we have covered most of the questions that have come through. So I want to thank you all for joining us today for the Betmakers Technology Group Limited Investor Webinar. Should we have missed any of your questions, please feel free to reach out by the contact details on the bottom of the ASX releases. But I want to thank you all for your time.

I appreciate it, everyone.