Digital Assures That Less Is More For Caesars Entertainment in Q2
Digital rode to the rescue and brought respectability to Caesars Entertainment’s fiscals in the second quarter, ending June 30.
With most metrics either flatlining or dipping, Caesars Digital arm led the way with a 42.1 percent year-on-year Net Revenue growth of US$216 million in Q2 (£169.15m).
The digital arm, rebranded as the Caesars Sportsbook in Q3, 2021, also reported a “same-store” Adjusted EBITDA of US$11 million (£8.61m), a huge positive over last year’s life-for-like loss of US$69 million (-£54.03m).
In terms of overall Net Revenues, Caesars reported US$2.9 billion in Q2 (£2.27bn), compared to US$2.8 billion (£2.19bn) in the same period last year.
Net income–superficially boosted by the release of US$940 million (£736.15m) of so-called Valuation Allowance–was US$920 million (£720.49m), against a year-on-year net loss of US$123 million (-£96.32m).
Same-store Adjusted EBITDA also showed marginally positive results, totalling US$1 billion (£783.1m) — compared to US$978 million in Q2 2022 (£765.9m).
More and Less
Caesars’ land-based Vegas operations held more or less steady with a minor 1.2 percent slip of US$1.128 billion (£884.9m).
The Regional casinos vertical performed relatively better, clocking net revenue of US$1.461 billion (£1.14bn), a y-o-y increase of half-a-percent.
But both Las Vegas and Regional showed significant Net Income losses over the quarter; with Vegas down 16.6 percent to US$261 million (£204.4m) and Regional down a similar 15.5 percent to US$124 million (£97.1m).
For its part, Caesars Digital clocked considerable improvement: reporting a Net Loss of US$22 million (-£17.22m), significantly less than the US$116 million loss reported in Q2 2022 (-£90.84m).
The sportsbook reported US$11 million (£8.61m) in Adjusted EBITDA, a massive year-on-year improvement over the US$69 million loss in Q2 2022 (-£54.03m).
Meantime, Caesars’ Managed and Branded segment reported US$19 million in Adjusted EBITDA (£14.87m), a 13.6 percent decrease; while the Corporate and Other segment reported a 22.9 percent decrease in Adjusted EBITDA with a loss of US$43 million (-£33.67m).
Despite the mixed results Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg remains bullish.
“The second quarter of 2023 reflected continued strength in our business,” he asserted.
“Demand remains strong in both Las Vegas and our Regional markets. Caesars Digital posted its first quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA since our rebranding to Caesars Sportsbook in the third quarter of 2021.
“And our capital investments are generating stronger than expected returns based on recent new property openings,” said Reeg.
