Bally’s Corporation benefited from US Covid restrictions coming to an end in Q1 of 2022 as revenues soared year-on-year, with CEO Lee Fenton labeling the period’s performance as ‘strong’.
Publishing its First Quarter 2022 results, Bally’s reported revenues of $548.3m, up 185.1% YoY as patrons flooded back into casinos following a significant period of lockdowns, restrictions and pandemic-related closures.
Despite this, income from operations took a dip of 23.7% YoY to $22.5m and the income from operations margin dipped from 15.3% to just 4.1%.
The net loss of $10.7m recorded in Q1 of 2021 swung to a net income of $1.88m through Q1 2022, with adjusted EBITDA up 54.3% to $114.95m.
Lee Fenton, Chief Executive Officer said, “Our Casinos & Resorts’ results were strong as the US consumer returned to our properties as US COVID restrictions were lifted. International Interactive revenue was down 1% year over year on a constant currency basis due to tightened consumer spending in the UK that was offset by solid performance by our Asia business.
“North America Interactive continued to invest in the rollout plan that accelerated this month with the launch of our foundational 2.0 tech stack in Arizona yesterday.”
Furthermore, Bally’s revealed that a special committee of its Board of Directors has turned down an offer from Standard General to acquire all of the outstanding shares of the company that it did not own already.
The approach would have seen the shares bought at $38 each, reaching a total value of $2.07bn, and would have represented a premium of 30% to the closing price on January 24, 2022.
Soo Kim, Standard General’s Managing Partner, and Bally’s current Chair, added: “While we are of course disappointed with the outcome of the discussions of our proposal, as we said from the outset, we intend to remain a supportive, long-term investor in the Company.”
