PointsBet Holdings Limited (PBH) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the PointsBet Holdings Limited H1 FY '25 Financial Results. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Sam Swanell, Group CEO. Please go ahead.

Good morning. I'd like to thank you for joining this call to present the PointsBet Holdings Limited Half Year 2025 Results. This is Sam Swanell, Group CEO; and I'm joined today by our Group CFO, Alister Lui. Today, we will talk to our investor presentation, which was lodged with the ASX this morning, together with our half year financial report. We will also touch upon the announcement this morning regarding PointsBet entering a Scheme Implementation Deed with MIXI. Please note the safe harbor statement in the presentation and that all figures are in Australian dollars unless otherwise stated. Turning to Slide 4. PointsBet has entered a Scheme Implementation Deed with MIXI and MIXI Australia for the acquisition by MIXI Australia of 100% of the issued share capital of PointsBet Holdings Limited by way of a scheme of arrangement. MIXI is a consumer technology company with its principal business activities, including the development and operation of mobile games, communication services, publicly managed sports betting services and management of professional sports teams in Japan. The company has over 1,600 permanent employees across the globe and generated approximately JPY 147 billion in annual sales in FY '24. Under the terms of the scheme, PointsBet shareholders will receive cash consideration of $1.06 per PointsBet share. The Scheme Consideration represents a significant premium of 27.7% to PointsBet's closing price yesterday, on February 25, and of 23.9% to the 1-month VWAP. It also represents an implied EV to EBITDA multiple of 25.2x to 32.1x based on PointsBet's FY '25 EBITDA guidance range. The Scheme is not subject to any financing conditions. As at MIXI's most recently reported balance sheet dated 31 December, 2024, MIXI had over JPY 100 billion or AUD 1 billion of cash and deposits on its balance sheet. The PointsBet Board believes this transaction represents a compelling opportunity for PointsBet shareholders to realize immediate and certain cash value at a premium to the recent trading prices and at a high implied FY '25 EV to EBITDA multiple. Shareholders will have the opportunity to vote on the Scheme at the Scheme Meeting, which is expected to be held in late May 2025. The PointsBet Board unanimously recommends that PointsBet shareholders vote in favor of the Scheme in the absence of a superior proposal and subject to an independent expert concluding and continuing to conclude that the Scheme is in the best interest of PointsBet shareholders. A Scheme booklet containing information relating to the Scheme, including detailed reasoning for the PointsBet Directors' recommendation, the independent experts report and details of the Scheme Meeting will be prepared and provided to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission for review and subsequently sent to PointsBet shareholders in late April 2025. Subject to shareholder approval being obtained and the other conditions of the Scheme being satisfied or waived in accordance with their terms, the Scheme is expected to be implemented in mid-June 2025. PointsBet shareholders do not need to take any action at this point in time. As further details will be set out in the Scheme booklet, I ask that questions on this call are focused on the half year results. Turning to Slide 6 to now discuss the half year results. As mentioned in the Q2 FY '25 quarterly update, we improved our H1 EBITDA position by $10 million compared to the PCP, coming in at a loss of $3.3 million. These results have been delivered on the back of revenue growth and improvement in our gross profit efficiency. As we've stated consistently over recent quarters, our focus is not just on delivering revenue, but also ensuring it is earned efficiently from a gross profit perspective. H1 gross profit grew 11% versus the PCP to $65 million. The Group had over 292,600 rolling 12-month cash actives at 31 December '24, a new record. Our growth in the relative contribution of our mass market recreational segments in both Australia and Canada has been strong, and this is delivering a more diversified and more sustainable revenue base and also expanding gross profit margins. The business is on track to deliver FY '25 EBITDA in the range of $11 million to $14 million. Turning to Slide 8 to discuss the Australian trading business. Australia continued to deliver on our strategy to align growth in quality actives with sustainable growth in net win and gross profit. Total Australian cash actives reached 235,100 and was up 8% versus the PCP. Generosity efficiency, that is generosity as a percentage of gross win improved from 30% in the PCP to 24%, helping drive the gross profit result. A gross profit of $55.8 million was achieved, an 11% increase compared to the PCP. This outpaced growth in net win due to net win being delivered more efficiently. We consider this 11% our growth rate for our Australian business and gross profit growth is the metric we focus most on internally. All of the H1 FY '25 key financial metrics you can see on this table performed in line with or ahead of consistent benchmarks established over the last 12 months. Finally, a record H1 statutory segment EBITDA of $10.7 million was achieved, $8.4 million or 376% increase on the PCP. Turning to Slide 10 to discuss the Canadian trading business. We delivered strong half yearly turnover growth versus the PCP across both sports and iGaming, which translated into H1 FY '25 total net win growth of 14% versus the PCP. As mentioned previously in the Q2 FY '25 quarterly update, Canada was negatively affected by customer-friendly results impacting both sports and casino. We estimate the cost of this negative variance as approximately $3.9 million in net win. 12-month rolling cash active clients grew strongly to 57,400, up 49% on the PCP. On the iGaming side, we continue to see positive shifts in the composition of our iGaming customer base and the overall mix of gameplay with the mix shifting towards higher-margin slot games. While the higher-than-expected customer payouts on slot games impacted our casino results in the quarter, the higher mix of slots activity that we are seeing is expected to deliver improved performance in H2 and beyond. On the sports betting side, we saw a further increase of our in-play turnover as a percentage of total turnover, being 73% versus 66% in the PCP as we continue to improve and leverage our Odds Factory capability. Finally, the Canada H1 statutory segment EBITDA of negative $12.2 million was impacted by negative variance, as previously mentioned, resulting in a $0.4 million decrease compared to the PCP. I will now hand it to Al Lui to review the H1 FY '25 group financial performance.

Thank you, Sam. Turning to Slide 12 for the normalized results. Please note, there is also a summary of our statutory group and segment results and a reconciliation of the normalized results to the statutory on Slide 21. The group recorded revenue of $124.4 million, an increase of 6% versus the PCP, and an EBITDA loss of $3.3 million, which is a $10 million improvement on the PCP. Gross profit margin of 52.2%, up 2.5 percentage points on the PCP, driven by increased net win efficiency in Australia due to increasing sports contribution mix more than offsetting the impact of Victoria Point of Consumption tax increases effective 1 July 2024. Marketing expense in Australia was $25.3 million, down 11% on the PCP, and marketing expense in Canada was $12.7 million or CAD 11.6 million, down 9% on the PCP. Both jurisdictions benefit from improved marketing efficiency, while growing global actives to 292,600. Product and technology expense has normalized to be higher than the PCP post the completion of the sale of the U.S. business and demonstrates the significant ongoing investment we are making to deliver our top-tier products in Australia and Canada. H1 administration and other expenses were down $1.7 million or 33% on the PCP due to cost savings achieved post sale of the U.S. business. Turning to Slide 13. At 31 December 2024, the company had $15.4 million in corporate cash and net assets of $4.8 million. Turning to Slide 14. We have talked about our group consolidated cash flows in detail as part of our quarterly 4C reporting obligations in October 2024 and January 2025. Net cash inflows from operating activities was $0.5 million. Net operating cash flows, excluding movement in player cash accounts, was minus $2.8 million, $7.5 million lower than the net operating outflows of $10.4 million in the PCP. Total cash receipts from customers was $135.1 million, which included $124.2 million from Sportsbook and $10.9 million from iGaming. Net investing outflows were $9.6 million. The company continues to invest in product and technology to power our top-tier products in both Australia and Canada. Net financing outflows were $0.5 million. Net cash flows will be positive in H2 in line with our seasonally stronger H2 EBITDA performance and our continued momentum. The company remains well capitalized as we enter this phase of positive cash flow. I'll now hand it back to Sam.

Thanks, Al. In conclusion, we finished H1 having improved our EBITDA position by $10 million versus the PCP, and remain on track to deliver EBITDA of between $11 million and $14 million for full year '25. We will now take questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Kai Erman with Jefferies.

Just one for me this morning. In regards to your medium-term targets that we've sort of spoken about before and, obviously, the cost strategy, could you please give any color on how you're tracking in regards to sort of the fixed cost percentages that you wanted to look at and the operating leverage sort of guidance that you've given, how that's tracking?