New Zealand’s Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) has revealed that both revenue and net profit were below budget expectations in the first half of its fiscal year, while it made a higher-than-expected loss for the period.
Total revenue for the six months to 31 January, 2020 amounted to NZ$187.1m (£98.0m/€106.7m/US$122.1m), an increase of 2.0% on the previous year, but 8.0% below the budgeted figure of NZ$188.3m.
RITA said performance against budget was primarily driven by lower betting turnover from elite and VIP customers, as well as unfavourable results across horse racing and fixed-odds sports.
Betting revenue came in at NZ$147.0m, below a NZ$148.2m target, while revenue from NZ racing shown overseas fell 7.4% to NZ$11.7m.
However, gaming revenue was up by 1.8% year-on-year to NZ$15.0m, above the budgeted figure of NZ$14.9m, while other revenue came to NZ$13.5m. RITA said that the latter was boosted by an increase in merchant fee revenue and racing services income.
Total betting and gaming turnover amounted to NZ$1.50bn, which was 6.4% up on last year, but 3.1% below RITA’s budget of NZ$1.57bn.
