Inside Asian Gaming

IAG NOV 2019年11月 亞博匯 84 2019 POWER 50 DAVID ATTENBOROUGH CLAIMS TO FAME • 28 years of industry experience in England, South Africa and Australia • Heads Australia’s biggest racing and wagering company 名成事跡 • 在英格蘭、南非及澳洲擁有28年的行業經驗 • 領導著澳洲最大的競賽及投注公司 26 MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CEO Tabcorp 執行董事兼行政總裁 Tabcorp AUSTRALIAN wagering and betting giant Tabcorp completed a monstrous AU$11 billion merger with fellow industry kingpin Tatts Group in early 2018, but the 18 months since have left little time for reflection given the intense competition in Australia’s betting space. No doubt Tabcorp boss David Attenborough will have taken a keen interest in the recent revelation that Ireland’s Flutter Entertainment is set to merge with Canada’s The Stars Group in a US$6 billion deal. Flutter, which owns Sportsbet, and Stars, which owns BetEasy, said it will keep the two popular Australian betting brands separate but has outlined plans to utilize their combined resources to challenge Tabcorp’s standing as dominant market leader. How that plays out remains to be seen. Notably, Attenborough had earlier this year flagged improving operating conditions due to the impact of a new point of consumption tax levied against licensed sports books in most Australian states, which had limited their ability to offer aggressive promotions. In the meantime, Tabcorp reported an 8.7% increase in revenues for the year ended 30 June 2019 to AU$5.48 billion, the growth driven entirely by its Lotteries and Keno business where revenue rose 22.8% to AU$2.86 billion – more than half of group- wide revenue – on a 73.5% increase in digital turnover. However, both the Wagering and Media and Gaming Services segments suffered declines, prompting some shareholders to call for Tabcorp to spin off the lotteries business in order to maximize its potential. Tabcorp says that won’t happen, promising instead to focus on improvements to its underperforming wagering business. 澳洲 投注巨擘Tabcorp與份量相當的同業Tatts Group於2018年初完成了耗資 高達110億澳元的超大型合併，但此後的18個月內，就由於澳洲投注市場的激烈 競爭，而無瑕再反思是次拼購。 毫無疑問，Tabcorp老闆David Attenborough對於最近愛爾蘭的Flutter Entertainment計劃以價值60億美元的交易與加拿大的The Stars Group合 併一事十分感興趣。Flutter和Stars分別擁有Sportsbet和BetEasy。雖然這兩 個廣受歡迎的澳洲投注品牌會繼續分開，但已經有一系列利用他們共有資源 的計劃被提出，以挑戰Tabcorp的霸主地位。而這些計劃將如何實現，則有待觀 察。 值得注意的是，Attenborough在本年早些時候已表示經營狀況出現了改 善，這是由於澳洲大部分州份均對持牌體育賭局開徵新的消費稅，限制了他們 以進取的優惠作宣傳的能力。 同時，Tabcorp也在截至2019年6月30日的一年內錄得54.8億澳元的收 入，按年上升8.7%。這升幅是完全由該公司的Lotteries和Keno彩票業務所帶 動，該業務錄得了28.6億澳元的收入 按年上升22.8%，佔整個集團的收入超過 一半，而數碼營業額更是大升73.5%。 可是，投注及傳媒和博彩服務板塊就出現了下滑。這導致一些股東呼籲 Tabcorp分拆其彩票業務，讓公司潛力可以最大化地體現。Tabcorp則表示這事 不會發生，並保證將專注於改善其表現不佳的投注業務。 POWER SCORE 權能指數 : 1,105 POSITION LAST YEAR 去年排名 : 25