Betting on a mobile app

HLIB noted that Genting’s prospects were improving with the return of crowds to Resorts World Genting (RWG), and the potential border reopening.“With the addition of SkyWorlds theme park, RWG will be able to attract a bigger and more diverse crowd from both gaming and non-gaming visitors."

PETALING JAYA: Although Genting Malaysia Bhd’s wholly-owned subsidiary in New York (NY) has launched its mobile betting app, this is not expected to make a meaningful contribution to the group’s earnings, in the near-term.

“While we are positive on this development as it allows the group to tap into the robust and growing mobile sports betting market, we believe that it will likely need to undergo a gestation period before it can contribute to its bottom line meaningfully,” said Hong Leong Investment Bank’s (HLIB) Research.

In a report to clients, it noted that this was a positive development as it allowed the group to tap into the robust and growing mobile sports betting market in the United States, which could potentially pave the way for it to penetrate to other states.

Furthermore, HLIB noted that Genting’s prospects were improving with the return of crowds to Resorts World Genting (RWG), and the potential border reopening.

“With the addition of SkyWorlds theme park, RWG will be able to attract a bigger and more diverse crowd from both gaming and non-gaming visitors.

“Furthermore, we expect its British and US operations to sustain their positive contributions as seen in the fourth quarter of last year,” it said.

In the report, HLIB pointed out that mobile sports betting went live on Jan 8.

“Despite operating for only 24 days in January, New York has already cemented itself as the largest mobile sports betting market in the United States after raking in US$1.67bil (RM6.98bil) of mobile sports bets, which surpassed New Jersey’s record of US$1.3bil (RM5.43bil) in October 2021. Still, while mobile sports betting is off to a strong start, it remains to be seen whether the momentum can sustain going forward as the first month figure was partially lifted by heavy promotional offers, HLIB said.

Genting which counts RWG in Malaysia as well as Resorts World New York City and Resorts World Catskills in the United States, as its subsidiaries, returned to the black in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2021, posting a net profit of RM174.12mil compared with a net loss of RM240.85mil a year ago. This translated into an earnings per share of 3.08 sen for Q4’21 compared with a loss per share of 4.26 sen for Q4’20.

The group attributed the turnaround to the contribution from its leisure and hospitality business in Malaysia, Britain and Egypt, and the recognition of a gain on disposal of subsidiaries worth RM119.8mil.Genting said it remains cautiously optimistic on the near-term prospects of the leisure and hospitality industry due largely to the increased spread of Covid-19 variants.