Your Daily Asia Gaming eBrief: Crown, SkyCity, The Star, Tabcorp report results
Thursday 18th of February 2021
Good morning,
Major operators in Australasia have been reporting half-year results in the past 24 hours, and we’ve got you covered on the southern hemisphere action. Namely, that means Crown, The Star,SkyCity, and Tabcorp. Up north, we also present the latest on the Japan IR race, which is beginning to come back to life after a more dormant period. In our Nippon Weekly, we train our gaze on Nagasaki’s regional IR bid, which is probably the best managed in the entire process, enhancing the possibilities for a local win.
Chinese sports lottery company 500 .com has continued its transformation into the bitcoin space with the all-stock acquisition of bitcoin mining company BTC .com and investors appear to approve. Stock in the New York Stock Exchange-listed company jumped as much as 75 percent on Tuesday after announcing the acquisition and gained a further 10 percent at the open on Wednesday. The company's share price has been surging since the beginning of the year when it was announced it was venturing into bitcoin.
SkyCity Entertainment Group saw mixed financial results for the six months ended December 31, 2020, with strong local gaming performance, but weaker tourism-related business over the half-year. Skycity said local gaming was stronger than expectations, particularly for EGMs. International business, understandably, fell by 86.7 percent in the period.
Crown Resorts fell into financial losses in the six-month period from July to December 2020, but The Star Entertainment Group managed to eke out a small profit. Crown’s NPAT attributable to the company in the period fell more than 155 percent year-on-year to a loss of A$121 million (US$94 million), while Star had a statutory NPAT of A$51 million.
The Nagasaki Prefectural Government continues to distinguish itself as having the best-managed bid in Japan’s IR development race, giving them a strong chance to become a licensed municipality. Surely at the top of the list of their accomplishments is political. Not only does the local political establishment back the Nagasaki bid, but unlike any other candidate location in Japan they have gathered regional support from nearby governors and even the general public is not strongly opposed.
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Asia Gaming Brief is a news and intelligence service providing up to date market information
for worldwide executives on relevant gaming issues in Asia.