{"id":1738,"date":"2021-08-04T10:05:08","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T17:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/?p=1738"},"modified":"2021-11-03T10:09:37","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T17:09:37","slug":"caesars-1bn-battle-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/news\/caesars-1bn-battle-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Caesars&#8217; $1bn battle plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Caesars Entertainment<\/h3>\n<h4>The top line<\/h4>\n<p>Net revenues up to $2.5bn vs. $127m in 2020, net income of $71m compared to -$100m, adjusted EBITDA of $1bn vs. $131m loss YoY and c.25% up on expectations.<\/p>\n<p>This was an all-time record for quarterly adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin.<\/p>\n<p>In Las Vegas, Caesars recorded same-store revenues of $855m and same-store adjusted EBITDA of $425m. Regional casinos recorded same-store revenues of $1.5bn and adjusted EBITDA of $621m.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lean and mean:<\/strong> CEO Tom Reeg was careful not to make predictions about online market share but the group\u2019s intent is clear. The launch of the Caesars Sportsbook app the previous day and of the Caesars Digital division will see it commit $1bn to developing its interactive activities over the next two and a half years. Reeg said the group was \u201cactivating the whole enterprise into the vertical\u201d, including the 60 million people in its rewards program database.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>The \u201centire workforce has been incentivized to sign up people to digital and there is a real lean-in to digital.\u201d Prior to launching the app and Caesars Digital, \u201cthe digital business we were doing was incidental and not truly focused and now we\u2019re looking to generate cash at maturity well in excess of 50% of what we invested.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Go with the flow:<\/strong> Reeg acknowledged it wouldn\u2019t be plain sailing and when asked how confident he was that in the current highly competitive environment $1bn could be turned into $2bn.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cIf it turns out to be $2bn, we\u2019ll be having a good experience,\u201d Reeg said. \u201cMy view is that we\u2019re in a unique situation, everything opened up and everyone is looking for customers. We have 60 million customers in our database and the ability to serve them at all levels as their value to us increases.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Frontloader: <\/strong>Online EBITDA losses \u201cwill be front-end\u201d in the next two and a half years as the group launches national marketing, branding and acquisition campaigns. And while some brands have been quicker to launch, \u201cothers like (Caesars) took longer to get their ducks in a row, but we have everything we need to succeed in the space.\u201d Deutsche Bank reacted positively to one of the \u201cmost eye-popping beats\u201d this earnings season. They added that Caesars\u2019 \u201cstrong operating performances support management optimism and credibility\u201d on the long-term $500m-$1bn EBITDA potential for Caesars Digital.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Life on the margins:<\/strong> With Q3 occupancy rates expected to be &#8216;significantly ahead&#8217; of Q2 and margin gains to be sustained, Reeg said the labor shortages experienced across the industry had helped focus on attention to detail and operational excellence. But he added there was room for improvement. \u201cIt&#8217;s an extraordinary amount of EBITDA that&#8217;s left on the table,\u201d he said. \u201c(We) had very little group business to speak of and we&#8217;re still able to post the best quarter that Caesars had ever posted from an EBITDA perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Masking the issue:<\/strong> Noting a leaked internal letter about cancellation rates (see social below), Reeg insisted that the hit to occupancy rates would be minimal. \u201cWe fully expect to remain in the low to mid-90s of occupancy in Vegas through this current situation with the Delta variant,\u201d he added. Truist said growing COVID rates had created \u201csome industry-wide uncertainty\u201d but with mask restrictions in place during much of Q2, renewed mask mandates were unlikely to have a meaningful impact.<\/p>\n<h3>Check these additional articles on Earnings + More:<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wagersearningsmore.substack.com\/p\/4-aug-caesars-1bn-battle-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IGT revenue report<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wagersearningsmore.substack.com\/p\/4-aug-caesars-1bn-battle-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gaming &amp; Leisure Partners Q2 earnings call<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wagersearningsmore.substack.com\/p\/4-aug-caesars-1bn-battle-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PointsBet Q4\/FY earnings call<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wagersearningsmore.substack.com\/p\/4-aug-caesars-1bn-battle-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bet-at-Home Q1<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wagersearningsmore.substack.com\/p\/4-aug-caesars-1bn-battle-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Score Media &amp; Gaming analyst update<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caesars Entertainment The top line Net revenues up to $2.5bn vs. $127m in 2020, net income of $71m compared to -$100m, adjusted EBITDA of $1bn vs. $131m loss YoY and c.25% up on expectations. This was an all-time record for quarterly adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin. In Las Vegas, Caesars recorded same-store revenues of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[324],"tags":[698,643,697,614,594,689],"class_list":["post-1738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-bet-at-home","tag-caesars","tag-gaming-leisure","tag-igt","tag-pointsbet","tag-score-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1738"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1741,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1738\/revisions\/1741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wagers.com\/staging\/4285\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}