curious

Yes. I probably didn't say that very well. But I don't think that growing sports betting will take away from growing race betting. Probably to the contrary if it's attracting new wagering customers to bet on something they are familiar with, i.e. sports, they may then be tempted to also try race betting with some good promotion and education, especially if retail venues become nicer and more user friendly and they are mingling there with racing focused folk.

Thank you Special Agent. I may have misunderstood The Centaur's question but agree with everything you say. I also think that the answer is probably both though you might expect that Entain will focus on the areas where they think they can achieve the greatest revenue gains the soonest. With respect to the roadshow presentation, you have to remember that these were for racing audiences, so the racing related ideas and plans were probably at the forefront in those presentations. Different things may also have emerged at the different centres especially in the discussion and question time. I would add to Special Agent's list that there are clearly plans to work with individual clubs to help them enhance the oncourse experience for punters; with hotels, to enhance the TABs making them more pleasant and user friendly especially for new customers - they recently have reached agreement on this with the Australian Hotel Association which involves 1500 hotels; and improvements to Trackside -a third channel was mentioned. It doesn't really seem to me to matter much for NZ racing whether any increased wagering revenue comes from sports or racing as any revenue increases from either will still increase distributions to codes.

Entain will be operating all betting, both sports and racing.

Got that wrong sorry. The Racing Industry Act 2020 makes funding the RIB the responsibility of TABNZ.

No. They don't have a licence to do any gaming, nor now will the TAB. Sport and racing wagering only.

True. Be interesting to see how they do that. Can't imagine they'll send out a fleet of trucks on August 1 to collect 500 pokie machines as some seem to be suggesting. There will obviously be contracts with venues etc as well as the financial matters to consider. If they phase them out, say evenly over 5 years, then that's an extra $3m a year that codes or the TAB will have to find from elsewhere.

True in recent years. Integrity used to be funded by the codes prior to the pokies. Don't know how that will be funded as the pokies are phased out. It's really the codes responsibility so they may have to pick that cost back up.

Those costs have always come from the wagering revenue.

Yes. I assume that would be part of the reason why they plan to launch another brand designed to directly compete with overseas bookies like Sportsbet, 365 etc.

Yes. TABNZ will still exist. They retain their responsibility for distribution to codes, collecting income from other sources, managing the service contract with Entain etc. I don't see why people are so confused about this.

No idea. Maybe.

Well I have a few buts to that. If, say TABCORB, decided not to take NZ or offer betting on it, I'm sure other operators would quickly take up the slack. As I mentioned, the Entain subsidaries almost for certain. They would also probably try to attract those customers to their NZ brands. Don't see how it would possibly reduce revenue to NZ TAB or NZ racing. Only to TABCORP. The BIUCs are enshrined in legislation and set by the Minister, albeit in consultation including with offshore operators, but they don't really have much negotiating power. On servicing smaller clubs, what you suggest seems highly unlikely to me if it even is possible under the terms of Entain's contract. It certainly wouldn't fit with their ethos as I sense it at this point. They clearly have plans to re-energise trackside, including a third channel and maybe more.

Yeahh. No idea what they've done with that. Hopefully, it's work in progress.

Wouldn't that be handing Entain the whole NZ market on a plate? Can't see the likes of Ladbrokes or Neds giving it up.

Two different things I think but both would be better.

True. But that is also moot if Entain can't generate the revenue and there are signs of movement there from the likes of Sharrock.

They are keen on that but not going to sit around waiting by the sound of it.

Whether we did or not, it's moot. This is what we have now. It was certainly refreshing to hear from people in NZ racing who have an in depth knowledge of the wagering business and a track record of building those businesses. Also that they are going to tackle things like the overseas competition head on, not sit on their hands waiting for the government or someone to help.

There are no significant stakes increases in the forecast are there? Just sufficient funding to sustain current levels or a bit more for five years, then who knows. Entain say their projection is revenue increases by year 3 to cover the guaranteed amounts.

Correct

“I am pleased to confirm that because of the financial security afforded to the TAB by this announcement, the TAB have told me they will be able to remove their roughly 500 class 4 gaming machines from our communities. Given the existing sinking lid policy the government has on these gaming machine licences, this is significant.”

For heavens sake did you not listen to the ministerial announcement before commenting on it here. Yes. The licences are gone.

To the scrapheap where they belong.

"Yeah, well one of the things that I was concerned about and wanted reassurance of was that there were provisions in place to ensure that for whatever reason - it might be just at the end of the 25 year term - that the TAB would be in a position to pick things up. That’s a requirement in the agreement. So, I was satisfied at the conclusion that the TAB and Entain must make sure, that at any point, the TAB is in a position to be able to pick things up, if…whatever happens."

I'm reluctant to comment on this until we have further details but I think you and a number of others are barking up a tree here. Of course they wouldn't sign a 25 year contract without an exit strategy and I'm pretty certain that McAnulty said the other day that TABNZ can take back over at anytime during the period they see fit to do so? Whether or what exit arrangements Entain have is unknown to me.