Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Carlo Santarelli : Just want to follow up on, I believe, it was Steve’s question. If I just look at kind of the year-over-year performance in online for the balance of the year, 2Q to 4Q relative to the $50 million guidance in the first quarter, it looks like that you’re effectively guiding to a flat result for the April through December period. Could I read into that as A, being conservative; or B, some spend associated with Boyd Interactive customer acquisition, et cetera that is more or less offset by the growth that you’re seeing in the — with the FanDuel relationship and the online sports betting side?

Keith Smith : Yes. I’ll try to help you, Carlo, a little bit. I think that I don’t — we’re — we tend to be conservative, but I don’t think we’re trying to go out of our way to be ultra conservative or anything like that. I think part of it is going to be a shift between online and Boyd Interactive, number one. All of it will show up in this same category. So you kind of have to make sure you’re grouping all that together when we think about it. But when you think about the revenue share component of our business, based on what I just — kind of the $21 million or so that we reported in Q1, you back out kind of the onetime payments and Boyd Interactive, you’ve got a run rate of about at least in Q1 of about $17 million of revenue share.

And that’s the business, that’s what we’re saying is the seasonal aspect of the business. Boyd Interactive itself which was obviously formerly Pala, did about $5 million last year. So we expected to do in that $5 million to $6 million again this year. And so you just kind of build it on a full year basis. So kind of $17 million Q1 factor in seasonality. Q4 will be probably similar to a little bit better than that and then factor in Boyd Interactive on a full year basis. And that’s generally how we came up with the numbers.

Carlo Santarelli : Got it. That makes sense. And then, Josh, I’m 90% sure on this, but I just wanted to double check. When you were discussing Managed & Other and you were talking about the success at Wilton, your guide was $65 million to $70 million, then you mentioned the $130 million number. The plug there between that and online, is Lattner contributing somewhere in the $10 million to $15 million range? Is that the piece that was missing there?

Josh Hirsberg : Yes, that’s exactly right, Carlo.

Carlo Santarelli : Great. Okay. And then just lastly on the Locals market. Clearly, top line remains strong. You don’t really have any sort of weather impacts in there. But it did look like there was an acceleration of revenue in the first quarter benchmarked against the first quarter of 2019 relative to what you saw in the second half of last year, is there anything noticeable that you guys are seeing in the locals market of late?

Josh Hirsberg : I wouldn’t call out anything noticeable. I would just — the only thing I could point to really, Carlo, to help you think through that is I think we do believe that the first quarter performance was generally a little bit better than the fourth quarter. So talking sequentially here now. And we saw better performance in the lower end and unrated segments of our database and good strength overall, and let’s say, continued strength in our core customer and older demographic generally. And so I think that’s what we’re seeing from the benefit of in both Las Vegas Locals and Downtown, quite honestly. So that might be playing into kind of what you’re seeing when you look at kind of the pickup in performance.

Keith Smith : Carl, I think overall, Las Vegas had a very strong first quarter. When you think about convention business and hotel occupancy, absent the gaming numbers that came out today, convention business was extremely strong, grew from January to February into March, occupancies were high, rates were high. And so there was a lot of business in town in the first quarter of this year. So I think you probably saw a little bit stronger performance maybe in Q1 than you’ve seen in prior quarters.

Operator: Our next question is from Barry Jonas with Truist.

Barry Jonas : Maybe just at a high level, you grew EBITDAR over 8% year-on-year in Q1. Consensus estimates right now, assuming EBITDAR is going to contract 3% this year or around there, is there anything you’re seeing, expect to see which would warrant total EBITDAR to contract this year?

Josh Hirsberg : Yes, Barry. I think the only thing that we — from where we sit today, the consumer trends continue to look very stable, consistent as I mentioned in the comment earlier to Carlo’s question, I think we saw a little bit stronger business in the — actually in the not only among our core customers and higher work customers, but we got the benefit of some of the lower end play, certainly in January and February. So Q1 was good. I think we are looking at a little bit more difficult comps as we go into Q2. And as we look at the rest of the year, quite honestly, what gives us some comfort with not only the stable customer trends that we’re seeing, but also we feel like we have a little bit of an insurance policy, if you will, with the growth that we have in online and Managed & Other that we spoke about in our prepared remarks.

So we feel like we have a little bit of cushion should our business get weaker, obviously, what people are concerned about. But yes, that’s all — that’s what we see.

Barry Jonas : Got it. And then just as a follow-up, can you maybe comment a little bit more about the labor environment right now across your segments? Is — do you expect that to hold margins basically where they’re at now? Or do you expect to see any further hits there just given the labor environment?

Keith Smith : So Barry, this is Keith. I think from a margin standpoint, we’re comfortable kind of in the ZIP code that we’re in today. We’re competing or deal — I should say, not competing with, but dealing with cost pressures, whether they be wage pressures or utility cost increases or other cost increases across the board, but our teams are able to manage through them. So we’re comfortable with the margins that we’re producing, whether it be in the Las Vegas Locals region or the Downtown region of the Midwest & South and expect to be able to kind of hold while not the exact number, very close to that as we go forward.

Operator: Our next question comes from Shaun Kelley with Bank of America.

Shaun Kelley : Most of my questions have been answered, but just 2 smaller ones. First one, just to kind of go back to online and apologies if this has kind of given in to take a mile detail. But Josh, — can you just remind us, I mean, Ohio had a really big gross gaming revenue number out of the box for your partner there. When you’re receiving your fees, it’s presumably you’re paid off of off of the growth? Is that part of the kind of extra seasonality we may see in that market there?

Josh Hirsberg : Yes. I would say we had a very strong start in Ohio, and it is — we do — their performance gets indirectly reflected in our performance based on our share of revenue.

Keith Smith : Yes, Shaun. And you have to remember, I think when Ohio launched in January, not everybody launched right away. And so when you come around to the fourth quarter this year, you’ll have more competition for the gambling dollar. So we had a great — FanDuel had a great start in Q1, but there will be more competition as you get around to Q4.

Shaun Kelley : That’s helpful. And then a small just sort of detailed one, but you gave some color on the consumer side, particularly in the regional markets. I think you mentioned the core customer spend both kind of with and without Louis and Mississippi. Just any quick highlight on kind of how unrated play looked in those markets? Was it down? And are you seeing that subside at all? Or is it relatively stable or healthy?