PointsBet’s Australian business continues to see a trend towards sports over racing, reporting substantial growth in active customers betting on the AFL and NRL grand finals.
PointsBet has released its first quarter results for the 2024/25 financial year, with overall wagering turnover slightly down on the same period last year, but a range of other key metrics, including gross win and net win showing growth.
The publicly listed business is one of the most sports-orientated wagering service providers in Australia and it revealed that 67 per cent of its around 240,000 active customers were what was termed “sports-preferred actives”. That is up from 58 per cent at the same time last year.
It defines “sports preferred actives” as cash-active clients who either bet exclusively or predominately on sports compared to racing.
PointsBet reported a 43 per cent growth in active punters on the AFL grand final and 23 per cent growth on the NRL grand final compared to 2023.
Significantly, same-game multis drove much of that additional wagering. Turnover on same-game multis, which are higher margin products for the bookmaker, grew 72 per cent on the AFL decider and 26 per cent on the NRL equivalent.
They represented 44 per cent of turnover of the AFL season-ender and 43 per cent on the NRL finale.
Australian turnover for PointsBet for the first quarter was $557.5 million, down slightly from the first quarter of 2023/24 when it was $566.9 million.
However, the bookmaker avidly pursued margin over turnover at that time, with more targeted use of marketing and generosities.
Bren O’Brien
As such, the gross win margin in Australia was up from 12.6 per cent to 13.2 per cent, representing $73.5 million compared to $71.6 million in the same period last year.
Net win margin grew from 9.3 per cent ($52.8 million) to 10.2 per cent ($56.6 million).
PointsBet also revealed it paid $26.9 million, or 47.6 per cent of its net win, in taxation and product fees over the first quarter.
Its Canadian arm delivered substantial growth, including a 57 per cent turnover jump to $79.3 million. That means that overall turnover across betting through the company grew (at 3 per cent) along with gross win (5 per cent) and net win (10 per cent).
Bren O’Brien
PointsBet expects to be cash flow break-even in FY25 and finish the financial year with circa $28 million. Revenue guidance is $280 million-$290 million for FY25 and EBITDA between $11 million and $16 million.
PointsBet’s share price has increased from 47c to 72c since July 1.
