Las Vegas resurgence fuels strong Q4 for Boyd Gaming

The continued resurgence of the Las Vegas market fueled a strong finale to the year for Boyd Gaming, which reported across-the-board growth in the fourth quarter of 2022.Buoyed by record results from its Las Vegas Locals and Downtown Las Vegas segments, Boyd generated $922.9m in total Q4 revenue, a 4.9% year-over-year (YoY) increase from $879.8m in the same period last year.Las Vegas Locals accounted for $240.9m in revenue, while Downtown Las Vegas contributed $62.4m, with the latter representing a 16.8% YoY increase.Total net income for the quarter amounted to $172.7m, or $1.63 per share, a significant uptick from $109.8m, or $0.96 per share, during Q4 of 2021. Total adjusted EBITDAR was up 3.7% YoY to $360.1m.”The fourth quarter was a strong conclusion to another record year for our company,” said Boyd president and CEO Keith Smith. “We achieved records for revenue and EBITDAR on both a fourth-quarter and full-year basis, as our operating teams remain focused on growing revenues and building loyalty among our core customers while successfully managing expenses.“Companywide growth in the fourth quarter was driven by strong performances in our Nevada segments, management fees from Sky River and growth in our online business.”Smith went on to note how the expansion of Boyd’s sports-betting partnership with FanDuel – in addition to an equity stake in FanDuel in return for market access, a FanDuel-branded sportsbook is in the works for Boyd’s Fremont Casino property – has been key to its success in the still-emerging online betting space.Boyd also completed its acquisition of Pala Interactive in November as part of its bigger online strategy, although Smith cautioned that the pending transition to Pala’s icasino platform will likely come with some bumps.“With any transition, there’ll be some breakage as we start to move people over to our platform,” he said.For the full year 2022, Boyd generated $3.56bn in total revenue with net income of $639.4m, up from $3.37bn and $463.8m, respectively, in 2021.Full-year total adjusted EBITDAR was $1.39bn, a slight increase from $1.37bn in 2021.