Stocks Tracker: And like my (American) Dreams, they fade and die

Penn National Gaming

3 May closing: $90.47

28 May closing: $81.97

Peak May closing: $91.41

Penn National Gaming (PNG) experienced an early May boost following its Q1 earnings report but news of a newly acquired in-house games studio was not enough to abstain from the jaws of the stock market.

In fact, the Pennsylvania-based operator posted a 6% year-on-year decrease in Q1 revenue in 2021, down from $1.4bn to $1.3bn on Thursday 6 May, but consequently saw its share price jump to $86.62 the following day.

A slight revenue decrease in Q1 was slight abated by the expectation that March and April of this year will see an 8% increase in revenue and a 29% leap in EBITA YoY.

Elsewhere, PNG completed the acquisition of independent games developer HitPoint Studios and its real-money gaming (RMG) arm LuckyPoint as it looks to bring casino content production in-house.

Penn Game Studios will develop a swathe of casino titles, including innovation strategies that will see Barstool Sports founder and influencers Dave Portnoy act as a dealer or another player at the table.

Finally, PNG CEO Jay Snowden said the operator was taking influence from across the pond and would aim to build a business model similar to that of Sky Bet in the UK, preferring to tap into low-rolling players instead of the VIP market.

Bally’s Corp

3 May closing: $59.04

28 May closing: $58.03

Peak May closing: $59.04

Similarly, with its rivals PNG, Bally’s post-Q1 earnings share price bounce didn’t sustain itself in the upper echelons as a monthly share price low of $51.91 came just two days after the operator’s finances were revealed.

The Rhode Island firm posted an impressive 76.2% YoY increase in revenue from Q1 2020 to Q1 2021, hitting $192.3m, while EDITDA rocketed 137.9% to $52.5m YoY.

The impressive results saw Bally’s share price jump from $55.17 on Monday 10 May to $56.19 on Tuesday 11 May, before the aforementioned haemorrhaging to $51.91 took place.

The slump did correct itself, with the group’s share price recovering and eventually leaping to $58.28 on Thursday 27 May.

Elsewhere, Bally’s CEO George Papanier revealed the operator plans to continue actioning its expansion roadmap across the US.

He said: “We expect to begin to layer in additional states throughout 2022 by positioning ourselves in key markets to take advantage of a full sports calendar.”

Bally’s also revealed it expects its £2bn acquisition of Gamesys Group to be concluded by Q4 2021, with a positive vote of 75% from shareholders needed to take the deal over the line.

DraftKings

3 May closing: $57.08

28 May closing: $49.95

Peak May closing: $57.08

The Boston-based behemoth that is DraftKings had a May to forget after a mid-month slump saw its stock fall to its lowest value in the entirety of 2021.

A familiar tale this month in the US, once again Q1 earnings couldn’t prevent the tides of the stock market, with DraftKings no exception.

Despite posting a 175% pro forma YoY revenue increase in Q1 to $312m and a 114% annual increase in monthly unique players on Friday 7 May, DraftKings couldn’t claw itself back to its giddy heights of the past few months.

In fact, the giant’s share price began slipping before its Q1 results. From Wednesday 5 May ($56.18), the operator dropped to $51.89 on Thursday 6 May before slumping to $48.42 on results day.

Fears over net losses, which amounted to $346m compared with $81m in Q1 2020, and general administrative costs of $637m, saw the week commencing Monday 10 May deliver DraftKings’ worst share price valuation since November 2020.

Monday 10 May ($45.34) started badly, and Tuesday 11 May ($44.01) was even worse. But the monthly low of $40.99 on Thursday 13 May represent a crushing blow to the US sports betting bubble.

The shares did recover slightly in the back end of the month, ending at $49.95 on Friday 29 May, with CEO Jason Robins pointing to international expansion outside of the US as an interesting caveat from his Q1 earnings call.

Genius Sports

3 May closing: $20.89

28 May closing: $24.10

Peak May closing: $24.93

Data giant Genius Sports completed its first full calendar month of trading on the New York Stock Exchange following the completion of its merger with dmY Technology Group II on 21 April.

And what to make of the group’s first month? Steady with a nice finish.

Two acquisitions completed in the first seven days of the month, in the shape of a $200m deal for data tracking provider Second Spectrum and an undisclosed fee for free-to-play (F2P) gaming, betting and social media firm FanHub, failed to set the share price alight but instead kept it chugging along.

Its first spike of excitement came on Thursday 20 May ($21.49) following Genius Sports’ Q1 results, and a realignment of its financial forecast.

Genius Sports upgraded its full-year 2021 revenue forecast by 35% to $250m-$260m with predicted adjusted EBITDA of between $10m and $20m after posting an annual Q1 revenue increase of 52% to $53.7m.

A final flourish on Thursday 27 May saw Genius Sports’ share price hit a monthly high of $24.93, before dipping slightly to close the month out on $24.10 on Friday 28 May.

PointsBet

3 May closing: A$14.36

31 May closing: A$12.79

Peak May closing: A$14.36

An astronomical 716% rise in Q3 revenue for Australian-based, US-facing PointsBet saw May start off particularly strong on the stock market, before a scything 13% share price fall in a 48-hour period from Monday 10 May to Wednesday 12 May spoilt the party.

PointsBet reported a US net win revenue growth for Q3 of A$26.7m, while its active clients jumped from 22,716 to 127,470 YoY.

PointsBet group CEO Sam Swanell put the significant 461% YoY growth in active customers down to an increase in marketing spend to $33.3m for the quarter.

The overwhelming positive results saw a Monday 3 May monthly high share price of A$14.36 before the 13% plummet left the operator’s stock at a lowly A$11.82.

Unfortunately, the assumed bottom of the barrel revealed a trap door, with PointsBet dipping again to A$11.58 on Wednesday 19 May.

Steady recovery in the remainder of the month was a welcome bonus for the firm, with A$13.01 on Thursday 27 May, the closest to its pre-dip price of A$13.59 on Monday 10 May.

Elsewhere, the operator secured a sponsorship deal with the Women’s National Basketball Association, marking its first commercial agreement with a professional women’s sports league.

n.b. Month begins on 3 May and closes on 28 May due to public holidays in the US and Australia