PointsBet CEO bullish on surpassing 5% market share in Australia
Sam Swanell highlights continued efficiencies across marketing spend as he bets on business to beat market growth
PointsBet CEO Sam Swanell has said the operator is ready to push above the 5% market share threshold in Australia.
Speaking on an analyst call following the publication of the ASX-listed group’s fiscal Q1 2024 report, the CEO championed operations in its native Australian market before laying out a bullish future.
Total net win in the market increased 11% year on year to A$52.8m (£27.5m), while marketing expenses fell 41% as the group continues to tighten up spend in that department.
However, active cash clients were down 1.5%, while turnover slipped by 7% to A$566.9m.
Despite these dips, Swanell said there was an opportunity for the business to grow in Australia.
Having sold its US-facing operations to Fanatics Betting and Gaming, PointsBet is now focused on its Australian and Canadian operations.
When pressed on how he sees the remainder of fiscal 2024 playing out, Swanell was confident in his outlook.
The CEO said: “We’re seeing growth. It’s a A$5bn online market here in Australia. We’ve got plenty of room to grow into. We think the market as a whole will have some modest growth this year.
“Obviously, the only other data point that’s out there is Tabcorp’s minus 4% for online. But we think the market can have some modest growth and we’ll outperform that.
“There’s obviously an impact from the macro, but we are concentrating on the job we have at hand and we’re very confident in our ability to grow,” he added.
On taking further market share away from market leaders Tabcorp and Flutter-owned Sportsbet, Swanell pointed to the saving across marketing which will be redeployed for growth.
“We think we are around just below 5% and we think we can push above 5% and grow from there. We’re investing in growth and that is part of the reason we are growing. The other reason is that we’re just getting better.”
Swanell continued: “Even though our marketing spend came down for the quarter, we are investing strongly in marketing. We’ve got better at our promotions efficiency. We think we’ve pretty much got close to leading the market in terms of the tools that we have from a promotions perspective.”