Bluebet Holdings Ltd

ASX:BBT

Earnings Call Transcript

[Operator]

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the BlueBet Holdings Limited Q2 FY '25 Investor Briefing. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Andrew Menz, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

[Andrew Menz, executive]

Good morning, and thanks for joining us today for the BlueBet Holdings Limited Quarterly Business Update for Q2 FY '25. I'm Andrew Menz, CEO of the company. And today, I'm joined by our Chief Operating Officer, Bill Richmond; and Chief Financial Officer, Darren Holley.

Turning to Slide 4 of the presentation, where you can see the highlights from the quarter, which was the first full quarter on the new technology platform since we completed the betr customer migration and rebrand back in August. Having set ourselves a target of reaching monthly EBITDA profitability by the end of the first half, we achieved that goal ahead of schedule, and we have been profitable on a normalized basis each month since November and today announced that our demonstrably strong Q2 performance allowed us to deliver a normalized EBITDA positive first half in FY '25. This was driven by a strong Spring Racing Carnival trading performance, where we significantly outperformed the industry and delivered an 11% net win margin for the quarter.

The accelerated realization of merger synergies enabled by our market-leading proprietary technology platform and the ongoing strategic reactivation of the large betr customer database around key events, realizing greater revenue synergies by virtue of a margin uplift on that technology platform and by utilizing our personalized promotions engine.

Importantly, our strong momentum, both from an activity and margin perspective, has continued into January, and we remain focused on scaling the business further, both organically and inorganically with our market-leading product, experienced team and ready-to-go M&A playbook, key strategic differentiators for us.

Looking back at the first half, we are pleased to have delivered on all of our founding commitments as we exit the half with emerging profitability of greater scale and with the rationale for the merger playing out ahead of our own expectations. The performance of the business has unlocked cost and revenue synergies, ultimately driving us to reach go-forward EBITDA profitability ahead of schedule in H1.

Moving forward, our focus will remain on the ongoing strategic reactivation of the betr customer base around key events like the upcoming NRL and AFL seasons, and H2 will see us aggressively innovate with new products our customers love, which will increase retention and drive top line growth.

I'll hand over to our Chief Operating Officer, Bill Richmond, to provide more details on the key drivers of these results in the quarter.

[William Richmond, executive]

Thanks, Andrew. Turning to Slide 6. The Melbourne Cup Carnival is the peak wagering period for our industry, and we were pleased to significantly outperform the market across the Flemington Carnival with a strong trading performance that delivered a gross win margin of 16.8%, 4.6 percentage points ahead of the industry average.

In the second gray box, you can see the revenue synergies that Andrew mentioned earlier, playing out for the migrated betr customers on the BlueBet technology and trading platform. Migrated betr customers are delivering higher levels of racing net win year-on-year through a combination of improved product mix and materially lower cost to service through more efficient and targeted promotions. This highlights the strength of our offering and the ongoing opportunity in front of us, as we continue to expand our customer base organically and through the strategic reactivation of betr customers, including into Q3 with the Autumn Racing Carnival and football seasons.

Turning to Slide 7. Q2 was the first full quarter on the new platform after our successful migration and the revenue synergies from the combination are also strongly evident for sport customers. On the crucial Same Game multiproduct, we have seen a significant improvement. Betr customers are now placing more bets with turnover per active increasing by 38%, a reflection of better product, faster payouts and an overall improved experience, all of which are key attractions for [ betters ].

Better markets, pricing and trading on these products has delivered an 8 percentage point improvement in gross win margin and better generosity personalization and distribution has enabled a 43% lower promotional cost. These improvements have combined to drive a 271% net win increase on same-game multis from migrated betr customers, reinforcing our confidence in expanding margins further, as our customer base continues to grow and adopt these higher-margin products.

Moving to Slide 9, the culmination of all these factors and the successful migration of rebrand program has meant that we have delivered a normalized EBITDA positive half ahead of schedule, driven by increased scale, strong gross win margin and efficient conversion to net win.

Our turnover for Q2 was $357 million, up 131% on the PCP. Year-to-date turnover stands at $645.1 million, which is up 116% from the same period last year. The strong performance through the Spring Carnival saw the company achieved a record quarterly gross win margin of 14.6%, up from 13.7% in Q2 FY '24. While we benefited from favorable racing results in the period, we are confident that these levels are sustainable given our structural margin advantages in both product mix and trading capability. Our strategic approach to product diversification and efficient trading practices has enabled us to maximize these gains.

Consequently, our net win for Q2 FY '25 was $39.2 million, up 142% from the same period in FY '24, with the net win margin improving to 11%, up from 10.5% on the PCP. Year-to-date net win was $67.4 million, up 120% on the PCP, with net win margin of 10.4% or 10.8% when excluding the one-off migration-related generosities, bringing betr customers onto the new platform.

We now have almost 145,000 cash active clients, up 20% on the prior quarter, affirming the continued opportunity for growth, while preserving a strong net win margin, as we continue to strategically reactivate the attractive betr database. As a reminder, this is a trailing 12-month number. It will take until Q4 FY '25 for this metric to fully reflect the activity of the migrated betr customers.

BlueBet is well positioned to maintain the momentum generated through Q2 and drive further growth in coming quarters, which is supported by the strong start to Q3 in January.

I'll now hand over to Chief Financial Officer, Darren Holley, to take us through the quarterly cash flows.

[Darren Holley, executive]

Thanks, Bill. Looking now at Slide 10, which provides a summary of quarterly cash flows. At the 31st of December 2024, the company's cash balance was $17.7 million, including client balances of $12 million. Net win for the period came to $39.2 million for the quarter. Net cash used in operating activities for the Australian business was $0.5 million with cash outflows in the U.S. of [ $1.5 million ], as we rapidly progress with finalizing the wind down of operations.

Our advertising and marketing spend for the Australia totaled $7 million for the quarter, reflecting the peak acquisition period through the Spring Carnival. Cash outflows from investing activities of $1.6 million were primarily driven by investments of $0.7 million, reflecting the final contract payment of acquired liabilities from betr and $0.8 million relating to the capitalization of technology costs.

Cash outflows from financing activities was $0.4 million, which reflects the final fees paid to advisers and stamp duty on the acquired betr business. The company's cash position is in line with expectations, and given the accelerated EBITDA delivery, we are on track to be cash flow positive in half 2, as we continue to be sustainably profitable business with accelerating momentum.

I'll now hand back to Andrew.

[Andrew Menz, executive]

Thanks, Darren. I want to reiterate how proud I am of the efforts of the team who have got us in this position, having achieved profitability in our first half year as a combined business and setting ourselves up for future success. Taking a step back, it's important to recognize that our business is now a much larger, profitable Australian-focused business with a clear pathway to further scale.

Our product is now competitive with the top of the Australian market and resonating with our target customers with an accelerated product innovation agenda front of mind, as we enter Q3. Our product and experience enhancements, including the personalized promotions and engine, continue to unlock spend efficiencies and provide personalized value to our customers.

We have retained and expanded our net win margin advantage on a larger base of customers through market-leading data models, personalization, CRM and account management. This allows us to maximize promotional efficiency and optimize our product mix. We know what works, and we understand the importance of the strategic reactivation of our customer base to ensure we're scaling for profitable growth and efficient unit economics. And the successful execution of combining these 2 businesses demonstrates our strong capability to continue to deliver value, as we grow. We have a repeatable M&A model built by a management team with years of experience, who understand the fragmented Australian wagering market. We can move fast.

Again, I'd like to acknowledge the contribution to the company of Michael Sullivan, who handed over the Chairmanship to Matthew Tripp on the 1st of January. Michael will remain on the Board and his insights and experience will continue to prove invaluable. Matt needs very little introduction given his pedigree in the market, which is second to none, and I'm looking forward to working closely with Matt, as we drive this business forward to profitability at scale. Our differentiators underpin our confidence in achieving a 10% plus market share in Australia profitably through organic and inorganic growth.

Thanks again for joining us this morning. I'll now open up to questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Phil Chippindale from Ord Minnett.

[Phillip Chippindale, analyst]

Andrew, just earlier, you made a couple of comments about sort of adopting a pretty aggressive mindset in terms of product innovation in the second half, and I think you just mentioned the third quarter in particular. Just like you to unpack that for us. Can you just talk to the types of steps that you're looking to take there?

[Andrew Menz, executive]

Yes, of course, Phil. Thanks. I think what we saw in the first half in terms of our product innovation was a lot about making sure that, that new betr app had the look and feel of a Tier 1 operator. So a lot of our resources in product and development went into look and feel, speed and ease, and we really listed ourselves to Tier 1 capability.

What that now allows us to do in the second half and from quarter 3, in particular, is really use our innovation agenda, which we've had in the pipeline for some time to bring some new products that we know customers will love, that we know that will drive top line growth and those that will also ensure that we can retain customers and strong net win margin from those retained customers.

We've got some really exciting innovations that will hit. I believe by March, we should start to see them rolling off the production line. And we'll be looking at least for quarterly headline product releases, as we go into this year. As we've said before, we really believe our ability to innovate in product and our ability to move fast from a development perspective is a key differentiator for us, and we'll look to exercise that competitive advantage over the rest of the year.

[Phillip Chippindale, analyst]

Okay. Just in terms of a great result in terms of the EBITDA number for the first half being profitable. How should we think about the priorities of your business, say, over the next 6 to 12 months on that profitability metric? I mean, clearly, you've got significant aspirations to get to a 10% market share over time, including with some potential further M&A. But given you're now in this EBITDA positive position, are you looking to accelerate marketing to try and grow more of that organic in the near term? Or should we think of that level of marketing spend, as being broadly appropriate going forward and then so ultimately, leading to more profit in the shorter term?

[Andrew Menz, executive]

I think there's certainly an opportunity to invest more deeply into marketing. Our focus in that first half was obviously the reactivation of the databases that we brought together. So now from half 2, you'll see us back in market a little bit more looking to acquire new customers and also leverage a bit more of the top of mind awareness that we can drive into the betr brand.

I don't think we require a step change in marketing investment to do that, but we do understand that we do need to continue to increase to get that top of mind awareness out there to support those growth ambitions. But we'll do so responsibly whilst keeping an eye on that profitability position that we've been able to reach.

[Phillip Chippindale, analyst]

Great. And then just final one for me. Just on the M&A side of things. I mean, you made a comment earlier about your ongoing desire to consider that. How does that sort of compare to the organic opportunity that you've got ahead of you, which is clearly significant and something you've been executing well on so far?

[Andrew Menz, executive]

I see them as equally important, Phil. I think there's significant opportunity to grow organically in this market as I think we and some other operators at a similar level are showing at the moment. But the inorganic opportunity due to a pretty fragmented Australian wagering market and some challenges being faced by a number of operators, both at the top and the lower end of the market, give us confidence that M&A is a foot. And we really do see that as a key strategic path for us to get to that 10% market share.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Leo Partridge from Morgans.

[Leo Partridge, analyst]

Congrats on the result. Phil has already asked my question on the marketing side of things. But I think if we could just start off with the Q3 trading to date. Can you give us a little bit more color on that?

[Darren Holley, executive]

Yes. [ Leo and Phil ], thanks. Yes. Q3 has remained really strong. As we saw -- as we mentioned, Q2, we were really pleased with our margin across the quarter. There were some favorable results during the period. But what we've done in terms of putting the full database on the BlueBet technology and trading platform gives us great confidence that we can maintain those margins going forward. As we touched on in the presentation, January has been a really strong start to Q3, and we've got great confidence going forward that we can -- these margins that we've produced here are sustainable.

[Andrew Menz, executive]

And I think there was accelerating momentum in the back half of January that we saw, particularly around the Australian Open and some other events that we were pushing quite heavily through Magic Millions being delayed by a week. So we take great momentum out of that January month, both from an activity perspective, as I say, in terms of the active clients, but also maintaining those net win margins.

[Leo Partridge, analyst]

Perfect. And just one more for me. Just on the CapEx profile for FY '25, should we expect anything different?

[Darren Holley, executive]

Yes. Look, I think you saw, Leo, in the quarter, we did capitalize some -- about $0.8 million in IT investment. So look, I think that's probably the appropriate cost per quarter. That's certainly well down from where we were in Q1, as we're bringing the betr customers onto the BlueBet platform. So I think that's an appropriate level going forward is what you've seen in Q2.

[Operator]

There are no further phone questions at this time. I'll now hand back for any webcast questions.

[Darren Holley, executive]

First question comes from Andrew McKenzie regarding the company has said its strategic objective is to exceed 10% market share in Australia. What percentage of the Australian market share would you estimate you currently have?

[Andrew Menz, executive]

Yes. Thanks, Andrew. It's obviously a little bit difficult in Australia to get accurate market share data, but we do get some good data out of racing bodies and some of the sports bodies on an individual basis. At the moment, we'd estimate that we're somewhere between 4% and 5% of the total market and certainly off some of the trading activity we've seen in recent months, definitely pushing towards that 5% of total market share.

[Darren Holley, executive]

Second question is from Ron Shamgar from TAMIM. Do you expect free cash flow positive in Q3? In other words, will group corporate cash balance grow in Q3?

So thanks, Ron. Look, I think as we've sort of indicated and said within the presentation, we expect to be half 2 positive cash flow. Obviously, Q3 is a key activation period for us as well. So we need to continue to invest in marketing. But certainly, from a -- certainly a half 2, we expect to be free cash flow positive. And certainly, we have certainly seen a positive start to January. So if that momentum continues, which we expect it to, it's certainly not going to be that negative, if at all it is going forward.

And that concludes the questions. I'll hand back to Andrew for final comments.

[Andrew Menz, executive]

Thanks, Darren. Again, thank you for joining us. A significant occasion for this business to post normalized EBITDA positivity in the first half ahead of schedule. We carry great momentum into the second half. We remain steadfast on our -- on the opportunity that sits in front of us in this market of continuing to take share organically and inorganically. And we're confident that we have the team, the products and the technology to be able to execute on that. Thanks, again for joining us. Appreciate your time. Good morning.

[Operator]

Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.