PointsBet CEO heralds “great start” after first quarter since Victoria tax hike 

PointsBet CEO Sam Swanell has praised a “great start” from the Australian operator as it gets to grips with the hike in point of consumption (POC) tax in Victoria. 

The tax rise came into effect in July, rising from 10% to 15%, to bring the state in line with New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania. 

Speaking as part of PointsBet’s fiscal Q1 2025 update, Swanell outlined how the company has long been confident that it would be able to deal with the increase in POC tax.

The CEO went on to note that the performance in the three months to 30 September supported those beliefs. 

Pressed for comment on how the tax hike impacted PointsBet, Swanell explained: “One thing that we spoke about at the FY 24 results was that we expected to, despite the increase in Victorian point of consumption tax, we expected to be able to absorb that and maintain our margin from FY 24 into 2025.” 

He continued, revealing that PointsBet maintained its gross profit margin at 52.4%, as well as outperforming the net win growth, a feat Swanell said was more impressive given the recent change in Victoria. 

“Some of that is driven by our strategy, to lean into international sport, which is high gross profit margin and some of it is driven by consumer preference, clients are just preferring those higher margin multi-products, which gives us a little bit more to work with. 

“But yes, I think it’s a great start from us from the first quarter in terms of absorbing that point of consumption tax.” 

Analysing the operator’s fiscal Q1 results, PointsBet reported a 5% rise in revenue, with that total sitting at A$79.3m (£40.1m), up from A$75.3m in the same reporting period last year. 

There was also a 10% climb in net win, posted at A$60.7m, alongside a margin of 9.7%, which was attributed to “strong gross win margins and efficient use of gratuities” according to Swanell. 

The amount of cash active customers within PointsBet’s sports betting vertical followed a similar pattern, rising 5% to 238,400. 

Australia accounted for a lion’s share of turnover and revenue, coming in at A$557.5m and $73.5m, respectively.

There was also a significant climb reported in igaming net win from its Canadian operations, which jumped more than 50% to now sit at A$4.6m. 

In Canada, PointsBet also posted a 57% increase in sports betting turnover, which was recorded at A$69.3m for fiscal Q1, while sports betting revenue noted a similar leap of 59% to A$5.8m.

PointsBet’s Canada’s arm recorded a 9% rise in cash active customers to 48,900, which bosses put down to an “excellent” in-play betting experience. 

Discussing the rate of growth and market share in Canada, Swanell added: “We know we’ve got a benchmark there, what the market’s doing and we’d like to keep outperforming the market. 

“We were, in constant currency, up 69% and the market was up 37%, so we’ve done a good job of growing our market share for this quarter, which is great.” 

The post PointsBet CEO heralds “great start” after first quarter since Victoria tax hike  first appeared on EGR Intel.