PointsBet Holdings Limited (PBH) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thanks very much. I'd like to thank you all for joining this call for the PointsBet Holdings Limited Investor Update and Full Year 2020 Results. This is Sam Swanell, Group CEO. And I'm joined today by our CFO, Andrew Mellor; and Eric Foote, U.S. Chief Commercial Officer, who is joining us from Denver, Colorado. Please note we will not be holding a question-and-answer session on this call. As released earlier today, we are thrilled to announce our transformational 5-year media partnership with NBCUniversal. This provides PointsBet with deep access and integration into NBCUniversal's world-leading broadcast and digital assets. NBCUniversal is one of the most iconic and trusted media brands in the United States with the largest sports audience of any U.S. media company, accessing over 184 million viewers. As part of the agreement, PointsBet is committing over 5 years to a minimum of USD 393.1 million in media spend. Importantly, this amount is progressively weighted towards back end of the 5-year term, aligning marketing spend to PointsBet's expansion into new U.S. states. Pleasingly, this partnership has been cemented by NBCUniversal seeking a significant equity stake in PointsBet, with shares representing 4.9% to be issued upon shareholder approval and an additional 66.88 million options, which if exercised in full for cash after year 5 will result in an additional $870 million of funds being received by PointsBet. I will now hand over to Eric Foote to provide an overview of NBCUniversal's world-leading sports broadcast and digital media assets.

Thank you, Sam. Turning to Slides 5 and 6. We believe NBCUniversal is the perfect partner for PointsBet to execute our U.S. media, customer acquisition and retention strategy. NBCUniversal reaches 100% of all U.S. households with their digital platforms having over 60 million monthly active users. NBCUniversal has a diverse mix of media assets that are local, regional and national platforms. This will allow PointsBet's ability to geo-target and customize local, regional and national marketing campaigns. PointsBet's access to exclusive broadcast and digital integrations across NBCUniversal's expansive portfolio of live sports rights builds trust and credibility in the PointsBet brand. NBCUniversal has an incredible array of rights to live sports broadcast with their diverse and market-leading portfolio, including the NFL, PGA Tour, NHL, English Premier League and NASCAR to just name a few. These rights are distributed across national broadcast and cable networks, including the Spanish language, Telemundo Network; regional sports networks; local television stations; and expansive digital platforms, including Peacock, a direct-to-consumer streaming service that includes live sports; and Rotoworld, a sports betting news and information subscription service. Turning to Slide 8. As can be seen, NBCUniversal has an expansive footprint across the United States. As PointsBet scales with the burgeoning U.S. sports wagering opportunity, the integration into NBCUniversal media assets will lead to improved acquisition and retention efficiencies. This delivers a distinct competitive advantage. Planning is already underway to execute with NBCUniversal for a launch in Chicago and across Illinois through both the NBC Sports and Telemundo broadcast networks and digital platforms. Turning to Slide 9. It is clear that NBCUniversal's vast national, regional and local broadcast networks provides PointsBet the ability to efficiently scale as our business grows and expands across the United States. The national reach builds the PointsBet brand while the 8 regional sports networks and 41 local broadcast stations, together with over 200 local affiliate stations, allows for targeted marketing campaigns and the ability to execute on relevant regional and team-specific promotions, thus reducing spend wastage. Turning to Slide 12. Regional sports networks, also known as RSNs, are cable television networks dedicated to providing sports programming to a specific geographic region, allowing vast reach with focused presence in key markets. NBC has one of the largest RSN networks in the United States. And PointsBet will have exclusive game day integration across them all. As RSNs are the exclusive place to watch local teams play in any given geography, they allow for customized messaging and integrations within pregame, in-game and postgame coverage. Turning to Slide 13. NBCUniversal's Telemundo Network is a leading Spanish language broadcast featuring original content and live sporting events. Telemundo reaches 94% of the U.S. Hispanic TV households across 210 different markets. Telemundo provides a strategic asset for PointsBet to reach the Hispanic betting population. This is significant, given PointsBet's partnership with LaLiga North America and the fact that we currently have 1 of 2 of -- we are 1 of 2 wagering operators with a full Spanish language site. Turning to Slide 15. We are excited to be the exclusive game day integrations across NBCUniversal's television networks. Integrations will include prominent pregame, half time and postgame features, virtual signage and importantly PointsBet's odds integration across in-game promotions and horizontal tickers, reaching over 80 million viewers. Turning to Slide 16. As noted earlier, NBC Sports' digital properties reached more than 60 million monthly average users. These high-traffic, high-growth digital assets include the direct-to-consumer streaming service, Peacock; a full suite of sports-focused mobile apps; and national and regional podcast services, providing exclusive integration opportunities, allowing PointsBet to connect with sports fans 24 hours a day. Turning to Slide 17. As part of the partnership, PointsBet will provide content integration and strategic digital media inventory across Peacock, a direct-to-consumer streaming service launched in July of this year, featuring NBCUniversal content, original series, news programs and live sports. Think Netflix but for live sports. Sports-related offerings on Peacock will range from live sports to documentaries to studio shows as well as nightly curated highlights for fans. As more live sports content is distributed via digital platforms, Peacock is well placed to add additional live sporting content to its offering. In addition to this existing premier content, such as NFL, the Olympics and the English Premier League, this allows PointsBet to integrate and reach an expanding audience. Turning to Slide 18. NBCUniversal's Predictor is a free-to-play sports mobile app with over 1 million downloads and 630,000 monthly active users and will be designed to enhance the NBC Sports live viewing experience. PointsBet has full marketing and advertising exclusivity across all categories, not just sports betting on this Predictor app. Given the demographic of users, this represents a valuable foundation to build the PointsBet brand and for qualified lead generation and acquisition. Now referencing Slides 23 and 24. To highlight the benefits of this transformational partnership, we are working in conjunction with NBCUniversal to build a media plan and strategy for a launch in Illinois. This will include exclusive local and regional broadcast rights for iconic franchises with NBC Sports Chicago, which includes the Chicago Bulls of the NBA, Chicago White Sox of the Major League Baseball and the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL. NBCUniversal's rich and diverse assets across the Bulls, Blackhawks and White Sox will allow PointsBet to dominate the Chicago media market with exclusive game day integrations and a significant share of voice across broadcast media, elevating the PointsBet brand. Additionally, the NBCUniversal's digital assets are a key competitive advantage in a largely populated sports-centric city such as Chicago. This combination, in conjunction with PointsBet's forward retail sports book locations and market-leading technology will result in a significant competitive advantage. I will now hand back to Sam for some concluding remarks on this transformational partnership.

Thanks, Eric. Turning to Slide 25. To summarize, PointsBet will become the official sports betting partner of NBCUniversal with exclusive live sport integrations. We will have exclusive game day integrations across all NBC sports regional networks; exclusive partner of NBC Predictor, free-to-play mobile app; first rights to new NBC properties, platforms and products; premium placement and agreed pricing across NBC Sports television and digital assets; majority of category advertising placements, known as share of voice, across NBCUniversal's key sports media assets. Now turning to Slide 26. Through this partnership, PointsBet gains access to market-leading linear assets would span 184 million viewers and digital assets would span 60 million monthly active users. These assets will act as the cornerstone of our marketing strategy. And combined with our in-house technology and products as well as our talented and experienced team, we'll deliver outstanding client acquisition and retention efficiency as we scale rapidly over the next 5 years. Turning to Slide 28. This slide reflects the sports wagering and iGaming market opportunity over the turn in of the NBCUniversal partnership to 2025. This opportunity is predicted to be at least USD 12.1 billion of annual gross gaming revenue. This is the immediate opportunity in front of us. And we are more confident than ever of achieving our target market share. Turning to Slide 29. We can see what the market opportunity can become longer term at maturity. Sports betting market size gross gaming revenue estimates have materially increased from USD 17 billion in 2019 to USD 27 billion in 2020. And the potential for iGaming is clear to see. I will now talk to our full year financial results as lodged with the ASX a short time ago. All figures in this presentation are in Australian dollars, unless otherwise stated. Turning to Slide 33. It's clear to see that I am thrilled with our progress. The group handled over $1 billion in turnover, finishing the year at $1.15 billion, up 103% on PCP. Improved net margin of 7.1% meant that net win growth exceeded turnover growth, rising 191% to $82 million. As shown on Slide 34, it currently has market access in 12 states, up from 5 states at 30 June '19. As evidenced by Slide 35, PointsBet is well positioned for future growth. The Australian Trading business delivered an annual positive EBITDA of $6.9 million within 3 years of launch. This achievement should not be underestimated in an established and highly competitive market and speaks to PointsBet's expertise in strategy and execution. In New Jersey, PointsBet achieved FY '20 online handle market share of 6.25%, as reported by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. Because of the nuances of the New Jersey media DNA, this has been achieved without a full brand-building marketing strategy in that state. In addition to today's NBCUniversal announcement, the company previously became an approved gaming partner of the NBA, MLB, PGA Tour and the official and exclusive sports betting partner of LaLiga North America. The company entered into partnerships with the Detroit Tigers MLB team, Indiana Pacers NBA team and the Kroenke Sports & Entertainment Group, which owns the Denver Nuggets NBA team, the Colorado NHL team and the Pepsi Center. In Australia, the company became the exclusive wagering partner for FOX Sports AFL during the 2020 AFL season and entered into a partnership with Channel 7 to become the exclusive Victorian odds integration partner for the Autumn and Spring Carnival National Horse Racing coverage. Touching briefly on Slide 36. As can be seen, it has been an incredible journey since launching our first product in just February 2017. These key achievements are a testament to the bench strength and dedication of the PointsBet global team. Turning to Slide 37. Until the suspension of key global sports from 12 March 2020, I was pleased with the growth in active clients across the Australian and U.S. businesses. However, the sports suspensions from March 2020 clearly had a direct impact on client acquisition and client activity for the remainder of the reporting period. In the U.S., due to the lack of premium sporting content for clients to bet on and the reduction of marketing spend that followed, lower activity naturally resulted from March 2020. In July and August 2020, as a result of the return of major sporting leagues and the reengagement of targeted marketing spend, higher activity -- higher active client activity has resulted. As can be seen on the right-hand side of Slide 36 (sic) [ Slide 37 ], during the 12 months to 25 August 2020, the company had 134,799 active clients, a substantial increase from the June 30 reported number. I will now hand over to our Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Mellor, to run through the details of our results.

Thank you, Sam. Before I talk to the group statutory normalized results for the reporting period, I would like to walk you through the trading performance for the Australian and U.S. businesses over the period. Turning to Slide 39. The Australian Trading business performed exceptionally well, achieving a record net win for the year of $75.1 million, up 159.4% in the PCP. Net win margin of 9% was up from 5.9% in the PCP, representing a record yearly net win margin for the Australian Trading business. In particular, Q4 saw extremely strong performance, predominantly driven by improvement in PointsBet's overall product offering and the shift of wagering spend online. For the reporting period, the Australian Trading business had marketing expenses of $20.1 million, slightly less than 1/3 of the full year net win of $75.1 million. We have previously communicated that our business model seeks to achieve a marketing spend to net win ratio of approximately 30%. And we were thrilled to be able to deliver this in FY '20. After deducting GST, net revenue for Australia for the reporting period was $68.2 million. As Sam mentioned, pleasingly, the Australian Trading business achieved its inaugural annual positive EBITDA of $6.9 million. Turning to Slide 41. PointsBet U.S. recorded a net revenue of $7 million, which represented just over 9% of group net revenue. This is compared to a net revenue loss of $700,000 in the PCP. In the U.S., PointsBet achieved a gross win margin of 5.1% and net win margin of 2.2% in FY '20, off a back of $321.1 million of turnover, referred to as handle in the U.S. This was PointsBet's first full financial year of trading in the U.S. since brand launch in late January 2019. U.S. marketing expenses were AUD 15.3 million, circa USD 10 million to USD 11 million, for the reporting period. The majority of this spend was in New Jersey, although we did allocate approximately 20% of total U.S. marketing expense to national brand campaigns. As previously communicated, we significantly reduced our marketing expenses in Q4 compared to our pre-COVID expectations. As the major U.S. sports resumed in Q1 FY '21, we've increased our marketing spend in target U.S. states. In New Jersey, PointsBet's financial year online handle market share was 6.25%, as reported by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. Now turning to Slide 42, our group normalized results. For the reporting period, PointsBet reported net revenue of $75.2 million, a growth of 193% versus the PCP. Gross profit of $38.2 million represented growth of 252% over the PCP. Gross profit margins for the Australian Trading business have remained consistent on the PCP. As our U.S. business grows, we expect our U.S. gross profit margin to improve as the business reduces promotions as a percentage of gross win and grows its net win in absolute terms. As I've previously mentioned, Australian marketing expense for the reporting period was $20.1 million and the U.S. marketing expense was $15.3 million. Employee benefits expense increased over the period across all areas of the business as the group continued to build a world-class team. As betting volumes have increased, costs associated with developing, hosting, operating and securing our technology and data platforms have increased for the reporting period versus the PCP. The normalized group EBITDA loss, excluding significant items, was $37.6 million and the statutory group EBITDA loss was $39.7 million for the reporting period. Segment statutory EBITDA is set out on Slide 43. Our balance sheet. The balance sheet was strengthened over the reporting period. And as a result, the group had net assets of $177.1 million as at the 30th of June 2020. Intangible assets predominantly comprise our capitalized U.S. licenses and market access fees. And the total cost of intangible assets increased by $44.8 million during the reporting period. Further, the company completed a successful capital markets transaction in November 2019, raising $122 million. As at the 30th of June 2020, the company had $135.4 million of corporate cash and no borrowings. Turning to Slide 45. Net cash outflows from operating activities in the year ending 30 June 2020 was $30.3 million, net cash outflows from investing activities was $21.4 million and net cash inflow from financing activities was $118.3 million, as has been previously reported in the Appendix 4Cs lodged during the reporting period. I will now hand back to Sam for some further comments.

Thanks, Andy. It really has been a great period of continued progress for PointsBet. Moving to Slide 47. PointsBet continues to execute on its strategic and operational objectives. Since listing in June last year, the company's strategic objectives have included: gaining additional U.S. market access; achieving strong market share in New Jersey; launching operations in additional U.S. states; reaching profitability in the Australian Trading business; and executing a media deal with a market-leading U.S. media company. Following today's announcement, I am pleased to announce that we've delivered on all 5 objectives. It's an exciting time for our business. And I'd particularly like to thank PointsBet staff globally for their outstanding work and dedication over the last 12 months. I thank you for your time and interest in PointsBet.