Inside Asian Gaming

september 2016 inside asian gaming 37 Asian Gaming POWER 50 2 0 1 6 of Tabcorp Holdings’ casino operations from its wagering and racing businesses. Since then the priority has been very much about shoring up the company’s long-term position in an increasingly competitive market. While revenue has risen slightly over the past two fiscal years to AU$2.19 billion in 2016, Tabcorp says it has been actively expanding its digital presence – most notably via the upcoming launch of online sportsbook Sun Bets in the UK. A revenue sharing deal with media giant News Corp, Sun Bets has Britain’s lucrative AU$7 billion online betting market in its sites. Back home, Tabcorp has this year extended its partnership with the Victorian Racing Club – home of the Melbourne Cup – for another eight years and its NSW Keno license through until 2050. Like everyone else’s, Macau Legend Development’s two casinos aren’t faring well in the current downturn. But Chairman and CEO David Chow is looking overseas for his Hong Kong-listed company’s future, pursuing development deals in Southeast Asia and as far afield as Africa and Europe that would challenge an operator 10 times Macau Legend’s size. Mr Chow, a protégé of Stanley Ho’s, with whom he shares family ties, has been in the business some 30 years. He’s a former Macau legislator and a member of the committee of movers and shakers that elects the Macau chief executive, the territory’s head of state. He’s plugged. And he’s been working his connections assiduously. This year alone, the company launched construction of a €250 million (HK$2.16 billion/US$ 278 million) mixed-use resort complex on Cape Verde’s main island of Santiago. It snapped up a Laos casino, the 470-room Savan Vegas, for US$42 million, with David Attenborough MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CEO Tabcorp Power 874 last – Score year Claims to fame 26 years of industry experience in England, South Africa and Australia Heads Australia’s biggest racing and wagering company 31 the possibility of a license to develop an integrated resort in the same province. And an agreement was reached to develop a resort in Portugal near the popular beach town of Tróia. The €150 million first phase includes a hotel, residences, retail shops, a marina, a sports facility and a machine gaming venue. The company also will participate in a joint venture to own and operate an existing casino in Tróia Back home, redevelopment of the company’s principal asset, Macau Fisherman’s Wharf at the Outer Harbour, is making progress. The first new hotel, the Harbourview, opened last February with 444 rooms and suites. The first of two five-star hotels, the 229- room Legend Palace, is scheduled for a soft opening in the fourth quarter. It includes a casino. Other planned attractions include a yacht club and public pier and a canopied open-air shopping and dining promenade. It took David Attenborough less than a week to pack up his family and relocate from Johannesburg to Sydney when first offered a role as Managing Director with Tabcorp in 2010 and barely a year to add CEO to that title. Clearly the demands of this fast-paced industry are right up his alley. With around 3,000 employees and annual revenues north of AU$2 billion, Tabcorp is Australia’s market-leading wagering, racing, media and Keno operator with its array of brands including TAB.com . au, Keno, Luxbet, Tabcorp Gaming Solutions, Sky Racing and Sky Sports Radio. There are casinos in the mix too (namely The Star in Sydney, Jupiter’s on the Gold Coast and Brisbane’s Treasury) although they are no longer on Attenborough’s direct radar – his first task upon arriving six years ago was overseeing a demerger