The Hong Kong Jockey Club reported a notable decline in its financial performance for FY2023/24, with several external factors impacting overall racing wagering turnover.
During its AGM, the Club reflected on the financial year ending June 30, 2024, highlighting the need for resilience amid challenges from a deteriorating macro-economic environment, the rise of illegal gambling, and increased competition from Macau casinos.
The latest racing season saw local wagering turnover drop by 9.3% year-on-year, attributed to a “fundamental post-pandemic shift” in consumer behavior, with digital wagering becoming the preferred choice for bettors.
Despite this, the Club managed to mitigate some of the impact through a global expansion strategy aimed at growing its international customer base. This approach contributed approximately HK$28.8 billion (£2.8 billion) in commingled turnover from Hong Kong racing, representing a 13.7% year-on-year increase and accounting for 23.7% of the season’s local racing turnover.
Additionally, the Club’s World Pool initiative, designed to position Hong Kong as a leader in global race wagering via commingling and simulcasting, generated HK$12.8 billion – an 8.7% rise from the previous year.
However, these efforts were insufficient to fully offset the decline in overall racing wagering turnover, which fell by 3.1% in FY2023/24, amounting to HK$136.1 billion, compared to HK$140.3 billion in FY2022/23.
Michael Lee, Chairman of the Club, commented: “The Club will continue to invest and, if necessary, make use of its reserves, both to ensure the Club’s long-term future and to uphold our commitment to the community.”
There was a better performance seen across football turnover, with a ‘record high’ results of HK$160.3bn for FY 2023/24, which represented a 2% increase YoY.
“Additional fixtures, the introduction of 24-hour operations, an increase in In Play offerings, as well as innovative new products like Same Game All Up and Early Settlement, all helped boost turnover and counter illegal markets,” the Club stated.
However, despite football turnover gains, income from football wagering went down 16.6% to HK$8.1bn due to a surplus of HK$2.4bn per year that the Club now has to pay as a Special Football Betting Duty for a total of five years until April 2028.
But despite all of these setbacks, the impact on the Club’s total FY2023/24 turnover was practically nonexistent, remaining flat at HK$304.9bn.
Club CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges added: “Looking back over the past year I am once again struck by the enormous resilience of the Club. Having taken everything that the pandemic had to throw at us, we have had to contend with an extremely challenging macro-economic environment as well as significant changes in customer behaviour as they seek out new experiences online or in outbound destinations.
“Despite this, the Club has continued to deliver outstanding racing entertainment and the strongest support for our community.”
Don’t forget to subscribe to our Telegram channel!
