SkyCity Entertainment Group, a prominent gaming and hospitality operator in New Zealand and Australia, has revised down its expected financial outlook for FY25, slashing its projected earnings by 4 percent. This comes amid ongoing market deterioration, and the company said noted “spend per visit across the Group has continued to fall.”
Projected earnings slashed by 4%
The company has slashed its projected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisaton (EBITDA) by 4 percent from the previous estimate of NZ$225-245 million ($134-146 million). The company noted a downturn in its Auckland property. The saw “reduced spend per visit across both its hospitality and gaming businesses.” Additionally, the company’s Hamilton and Queenstown casinos “have continued to perform broadly in line with group expectations.”
Turning to its Australian property in Adelaide, SkyCity noted that heavy investments in enhancing its anti-money laundering (AML) and harm minimisation measures—came at a cost, causing “both lower visitation and lower spend by VIP gaming customers.” This comes despite electronic gaming machine (EGM) turnover in South Australia rising year-over-year.
SkyCity CEO Jason Walbridge said, “The difficult market conditions that businesses like ours – which are reliant on discretionary consumer spending – are experiencing continue to have a significant impact on both our revenue and earnings.”
2H 2025 figures and outlook
In February, the company announced the results for the last six months of 2024, registering a 41.5 percent drop in underlying total net profit. This drop was mainly attributed to lower visitor spend and the settlement with South Australia due to its gaming duty. However, the operator is hopeful that the February 2026 opening of the New Zealand International Convention Center (NZICC) will help boost income.
SkyCity Entertainment Group and Totalisator Agency Board (TAB) New Zealand in early March wrote to government ministers to express their concerns about the government’s proposal to open up the online gambling market to 15 operators. The fear is that this move could lead to greater tax avoidance, undermine local businesses, and create an unfair playing field for domestic operators. SkyCity has reportedly requested that only five online gaming licenses should be issued.
