Is Boyd Gaming Making Moves With The Short Goodbye?

Selling one’s five-percent stake in the world’s top performing sportsbook, Fan Duel, for admittedly an impressive circa US$1.4 billion (£1.04bn) doesn’t look like the smartest move but that’s the query being directed this week at Boyd Gaming head honchos.

Just how much of the windfall from the sale to FanDuel owner’s, Flutter Entertainment, will be used to pay down Boyd’s estimated US$3.2 billion (£2.38bn) debt? Or will the cash be repurposed to build and boost Boyd’s own initiatives in the wonderful world of iGaming?

Releasing their latest Q2 fiscals, executives at the U.S. Fortune 1000 gambling company that operates some 16 casinos and casino-resorts across the nation remained on-script and adamant that the money will be used when and where appropriate, and invested–in both retail and online–on a long-term geo-focussed basis, one that prioritises regional factors — and not some overarching corporate plan to expand, or not expand, for example, digital play.

“[Our] FanDuel [extraction] is not a precursor to another transaction,” Boyd Gaming President and CEO Keith Smith told interested parties at the Q2 presentation last week.

“Now is an appropriate time to monetise this investment and to focus the proceeds on future growth,” he affirmed.

Aloha

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Boyd Gaming reported a respectable 3.4 percent increase in revenue, year-over-year, to US$1 billion (£745.6m) for Q2, ending June 30.

Net income increased to US$150.4 million (£112.11m), against US$139.8 million (£104.21m) in the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDAR for Q2 was US$357.9 million (£266.84m), up from US$344.2 million (£256.64m), year-on-year.

Against the recent trend, Las Vegas in particular delivered strong gaming revenue, the best quarterly growth in two years, with a “big increase” from Hawaiian punters downtown, helping to push margins to near-50 percent.

Boyd’s online vertical, meantime, continued its expansive growth, by over 30 percent, y-o-y, to US$173 million (£128.95m).

Nevertheless, despite this dynamism, and recent talks linking Boyd with a putative acquisition of PENN Interactive, Smith remains committed to his “regional strategy”.

“We [are not] looking to have a national product or be a national leader in the online casino business,” he restated.

Really?

Watch this space!