Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Tabcorp Holdings Limited Full Year Results 2023. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star one one on your telephone. You'll then hear an automated message advising you on this race. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to your first speaker today, Mr. Adam Rytenskild, MD and CEO. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Good morning, welcome to Tabcorp's FY23 Full Year Results. I'm CEO, Adam Rytenskild, and I'm joined on the call by our CFO, Daniel Renshaw. As you know, we announced this morning that Dan will be standing down as CFO for personal reasons. I want to personally thank Dan for the role he's played in the successful demerger and foundation year as new Tabcorp. Dan will remain as CFO for next week's roadshow and assist with the transition. I'm pleased that Damien Johnston will step in as Interim CFO while we complete a search to replace Dan. We'll take you through the presentation we lodged with the ASX this morning, outlining our results, and then we're happy to take your questions. Today is about updating you on the business performance in FY23 and marketing, marking it against our TAB25 ambitions.
As always, we'll provide a breakdown of each business unit performance and outline our plans for FY24 as we continue to invest in our transformation. Since our demerger 12 months ago, I've been very clear that we're creating a simpler and more nimble business that delivers more value to you, our shareholders. In our foundation transformation year, we generated enormous change at Tabcorp. We disrupted ourselves and the market. Tabcorp is a very different business today than it was a year ago, and it'll be different again by the end of FY25. As you know, TAB25 is our vision and plan for our three-year transformation. Year one was about building the foundations, getting the product, the policy settings, and the people right, so that by the end of FY25, we have a transformed business.
With year one now under our belt, I'm confident in creating TAB25. Yes, the market has softened since we set those targets, but we have our structural reform levers for how we'll create 10% ROIC. We're one of the few companies in the sector that have multiple growth levers right now, and we're focused on delivering them. By the end of FY25, we'll be a very different company with more customers and more profit. You'll have a clear view of the profit potential, understand the ambition for our strategy beyond TAB25, and have confidence in our ability to deliver it. FY25 is the year you will see what this company really looks like. I'm pleased to report that we've delivered on our FY23 priorities of laying down the foundations for sustainable growth. Despite challenging market conditions, we've grown revenue and grown earnings.
We've got our product right, with a new app and 10 subsequent updates in 9 months that have closed product gaps with our competitors and enabled us to grow our active customer base. We've proved we can match speed to market. We've given our customers an innovative and simpler product to use. We delivered critical structural reform in Queensland, with a level playing field now legislated. Since the level playing field was implemented on 1 December, Queensland has outperformed the group on almost every metric. Victoria will become a level playing field from August 2024. New South Wales has commenced the process. We have a talented team and have enhanced it by hiring key people from across the sport, communications, banking, and wagering industries. Our extended leadership team is smaller and highly capable.
We've reduced the team from over 50 general managers a year ago to around 35 today. More than a third are new talent, who have brought new capability and a winning culture to the business. Gaming Services is now very much an Integrity Services business, with the new Tasmanian monitoring license now operational and the sale of eBet. Today, we also announced the sale of Max Performance Solutions or what remains of the old CGS. This further simplifies our business. Getting these foundations right has laid the platform for how we'll deliver TAB25. I'm pleased to report we delivered strong FY23 financial results against the tide of a softer consumer market. Despite increased sales and marketing spend by our competitors, we've remained strategic and disciplined.
We grew group revenue by 2% to AUD 2.43 billion, reduced costs in line with our TAB25 target range, and delivered 8% growth in group EBITDA to AUD 391 million, as well as increasing group EBIT by 103% to AUD 150 million. Dan will provide a more in-depth overview of our financials shortly, but before he does that, I think there's merit in recognizing the significance of our FY23 financial performance. We've demonstrated our disciplined approach to sustainable growth, making us the only big three wagering business operating in Australia to report growth not only in active customers, but also growth in revenue and growth in earnings. As you all know, Tab's digital transformation is well underway. We've reshaped the business, and it will continue to evolve.
We're going to win the game with market-leading offers and products, backed by a simpler and more agile operating model. We'll shape the game with level playing field reforms, continuing to lead the market in customer and community care, and pivoting from gaming services to Integrity Services. We'll change the game with a renewed culture and values as a company. Now, make no mistake that we are driving a cultural revolution within Tabcorp. Culture is critical, and it will underpin the success of our transformation moving forward. The days of old Tabcorp, where defensive behavior and underperformance were rewarded, are now gone. We've had 10 updates to our app in 9 months. In old Tabcorp, that would have taken over two and a half years. I'm proud that in FY23, we sparked change.
Our largest competitor responded with marketing spend, increasing by over 20%, while our marketing spend increased by just 4% in the H2 of FY23. Despite that, we grew total share, we grew turnover share, we grew racing revenue share, grew customers, and we grew both sport and racing multis. This gives me confidence that we're on track and our transformation's working. There's no secret that the macroeconomic and regulatory environment is becoming more challenging. We're adapting to this environment positively, and we ultimately see it as a key advantage for our business. We embrace the role that regulators play and will continue to adapt our business to meet their requirements across every jurisdiction.
Ultimately, though, we believe that their regulations and controls should apply to every operator that take bets and advertise in the markets that they regulate, and that is why we've advocated for nationally consistent regulations. From a business perspective, we have scale across digital, retail, and with our vision rights to withstand economic impacts. Scale and channel diversity presents the opportunity to reach more customers across more footprints in-venue, at home, and on our apps than any competitor. As you can see on the screen, we're better connecting our customers, be it at home, on a device, or in a venue. We'll continue to ensure these core pillars connect even more closely to enhance the customer experience. This is our key advantage, and every decision we make will align with the graph you see on your screen.
This result highlights that our key customer metrics are heading in the right direction. It shows we're now trending up in the right areas. We're on track to grow market share over the next 2 years. We have a record 805,000 total active customers, a 3% increase on last year, and that has been achieved in a disciplined way in conjunction with earnings growth. We're not pursuing market share growth at any cost. We're being targeted and disciplined in our approach and investing in growing share by enhancing customer experience. This is evident in Tab continuing to grow as the first betting app of choice for customers, increasing to 29% and growing preference amongst younger demographics with a 3-point increase year-on-year. The launch of Same Game and Same Race multis are a game changer for our business.
Active multi-users have increased by 14%. Multi-turnover has increased 10%. These are high-yielding products, and most of that growth was at the back end of the financial year. We're confident we'll see a continuation of that growth in the start of FY24. To our key metric of market share, total revenue share for Tab increased to 34% from 32.5%. It's terrific to see total share increasing, and this demonstrates the strength of our wagering ecosystem. This, combined with the share increases across turnover and sports, is pleasing. Our digital revenue market share metric has remained relatively stable at 24.5%, slightly lower than last year's 24.9%.
In context of the other metrics, I'm pleased we're holding share, given aggressive generosity and marketing spend from our competitors, and pricing decisions made by smaller operators attempting to prioritize profits in a more challenging market. Our revenue share metric was negatively impacted by sport yields in the Q4 , which grew slower than our competitors. We get asked regularly if we'll achieve our TAB25 target of 30% through excessive generosities at the expense of earnings. Our FY23 financials demonstrate that won't be the case. They also demonstrate that we can grow total revenue share and earnings in challenging market conditions. Despite spending less on generosity and marketing than our competitors, the strength of our new product offering has been highlighted in our results today.
All key levers have grown, which give me confidence that we'll see this translate to digital revenue market share growth within our TAB25 timeframe. We've been very clear that to grow, we must do better in sport. I'm pleased to say our key sports metrics have improved. Active digital customers are up 3%, most importantly, 8% in the H2 of the year. Turnover has increased 17%, as has net revenue. Our Same Game Multi products are growing rapidly, with a 33% increase in turnover and 45% for the H2 of the year. We expect that to continue to grow in FY24. This shows that more customers are becoming aware of our new product offerings, as our new brand campaign highlights, sport is our sport. Tabcorp has the best wagering ecosystem in Australia.
We're the only company that can connect digital, retail, and venue, and media into one complementary ecosystem. FY24 will be about implementing a new innovative retail network. We'll have 50 venues in phase 1, we'll then evaluate their performance and customer feedback before launching a second round of venue upgrades. We're confident our new venues will increase foot traffic, better connect the Tab experience, and be a bedrock for our future growth. We want to be the best sports entertainment company in Australia, our retail upgrades will be part at the heart of that. You can see the slide on screen of one of our newly refurbished venues, the Zagame's Caulfield in Victoria. FY23 highlighted that Tab will be far more competitive in an environment with a level playing field.
Queensland was our best-performing state after the implementation of the level playing field in December 2022, outperforming the group in key metrics. Importantly, leveling the playing field has also been better for Queensland and for racing, an all-round win-win outcome for the industry, and why we think level playing fields will be implemented across the country. Our Queensland active customer growth was 9% higher than the group. Turnover was 5% higher than the group, net revenue was 4% higher, and VC growth was 26% higher. We see this as an indicator of what Tab will look like once level playing fields are implemented nationally. Make no mistake, it's a game changer for our company.
Queensland has shown just how quickly we can grow with a level playing field, and we expect those figures to be mirrored as other states implement reforms, which assists us to achieve our TAB25 targets. Tab has continued to lead the public debate for industry reform in Australia. We know the Australian community expect more from wagering operators. They're sick of being bombarded with gambling advertising. We welcome the Federal Parliamentary Inquiry's recommendations to reduce gambling advertising and the recommendation for a federal regulator. A federal regulator will ensure all wagering operators are governed by the same standards. This is essential to ensure safety for Australians in a socially responsible wagering market. I've said many times over the last year that growth will not be at the expense of customer care.
In FY23, we highlighted that with a new groundbreaking partnership with Mindway AI, who will use cutting-edge technology to allow our people to intercept and help potential problem gamblers sooner. There'll be no setting to get in this area. We'll continue to invest. Our gaming services business has pivoted to Integrity Services. We're now monitoring all electronic gaming machines in Tasmanian pubs and clubs, as we do for all machines in New South Wales. We've sold eBet. As I mentioned today, we announced the sale of Max Performance Solutions or the old TGS business. Our EBITDA across Integrity Services has increased 36%. This is an outstanding achievement for the company. We have CPI-linked price increases for New South Wales monitoring from 1 July this year.
Our Integrity Services business is a valuable asset and will become more valuable as the regulatory focus increases on gaming machines. You can now value it more easily. Dan will now provide you more detail on our financials. Thanks, Dan.
Thanks, Adam. Good morning to everyone on the call. As Adam mentioned, I'm stepping down as CFO for personal reasons. I've immensely enjoyed the last 11 years. Today I'm really proud to talk about a strong set of numbers after the first year of new Tabcorp. On Slide 16, it shows you the group results for FY23 compared to the FY22 pro forma and the statutory result from continuing operations. Compared to the FY22 pro forma, we generated 2.4% revenue growth, translating to 8% EBITDA growth, as we delivered OpEx below the FY22 pro forma and below the guidance. D&A of AUD 241 million was down on the PCP. I'll give some more detail on D&A shortly. EBIT more than doubled to AUD 150.5 million.
The waterfall chart on slide 17 shows the components that drove that 8% EBITDA growth. As you can see, VC increased in both wagering and media and gaming services, as our revenue rebounded from the COVID-impacted prior period, and we grew total revenue market share. This was partly offset by a decline in the digital wagering market, and we increased generosity in the period in a competitive market -- We benefited from a reduction in group OpEx, which was a pleasing result, given the inflation that's evident in the economy, and we're seeing good early progress from the Genesis program. Speaking of Genesis, and turning to slide 18 on OpEx, we had a very tight focus on cost for the period, given the backdrop of inflation and a softer top-line environment. Now, cost performance was really driven by two things.
Firstly, were what I would call in-year reductions, driven by vigorous BAU cost control. This was particularly evident in our technology area, where we reduced managerial layers, we reduced the use of high-cost contractors. In marketing, Jenni Barnett has previously spoken about the opportunity to change the mix of our spend and do less above the line, in doing so, we increased the efficiency of that spend during the period. The second driver was that there was more structural changes from our Genesis program, which began to deliver benefits, particularly in the H2 . As you can see in the chart, our FY23 cost performance has placed us within our FY25 target range already created capacity for us to accelerate investment in FY24. In particular, in FY24, we're going to be investing in our brand.
We're gonna be repositioning it to capture the opportunity we have in sport and in a younger audience, you'll see that in the H1 . We also continue to invest in capability, particularly our Data & Analytics Team, to drive personalization, conversion, and efficiency. As a result, we expect FY24 OpEx to increase by around 3% to between AUD 630 million and AUD 640 million before it declines again in FY25 back into that AUD 600 million-AUD 620 million range. Turning now to the balance sheet on Slide 19, our net debt closed at AUD 204 million, with cash conversion of 104% after adjusting for some one-off items, including the AUD 160 million Racing Queensland settlement settlement payment in the H1 , which is what delivered the level playing field in that state.
Investing cash flows included our investment in Dabble, the final Queensland license installment, and the proceeds from the sale of eBet and EGMs, in addition to normal CapEx. As you can see on Slide 20, we're in a strong funding position to pursue our TAB25 transformation. Post the settlement of the USPP in March, our average maturity extended from 3.7 to 4.7 years, and we ended the year with AUD 950 million of undrawn debt facilities. Leverage is sitting at 0.9x , and that's slightly below our current target of 1-1.5x .
On Slide 21, CapEx for the year was AUD 155 million, slightly ahead of the AUD 150 million guidance, due to the timing of some initial spend for our next-gen retail upgrades and the accelerated digital product development, including 10 product releases that you heard Adam reference earlier. We continue to increase the proportion of CapEx invested in growth and transformation, as well as in the sustainability and risk bucket. FY23 D&A was AUD 241 million, as I mentioned before, and it was below the guidance of AUD 250 million-AUD 260 million. The variance between those two is attributable, firstly, to the final mix of capital spend between shorter-life, what I call digital features, and the longer-life technology and product assets relative to our prior expectations.
This was in addition to the NPS business being classified as held for sale, which paused the D&A during the period. Turning now to the divisional performance on Slide 23, FY23 was a somewhat distorted year, given we saw unsustainable promotions from a new entrant, and our largest competitor increased marketing and sales spend by 23% in the H2 . We increased our generosity in FY23. However, we kept our combined generosity and marketing spend to 4% growth with a higher weighting to the H1 as we invested in the new Tab app. Still on wagering and media on Slide 24, you can see the strong rebound in cash revenue, up 25%, as our customers returned to socializing and betting at venues following the COVID-impacted prior year. Digital wagering revenue was down 12% as the digital revenue market declined in FY23.
VC margin was flat, and that included a 150 basis point increase in wagering VC margin in the H2 when you compare it to the H1 , and that reflected the benefits of the Queensland license reform. Media and international VC increased due to cycling of subscription relief provided to venues in the PCP, along with increased vision export revenue and the benefit of new digital vision distribution agreements. On Slide 25, you can see total turnover increased 4.7% in FY23. In the H2 , we saw a turnover decline of 1.8% with a 5% decline in racing turnover, and that more than offset a 14% turnover growth in sport.
Our net yields in digital were impacted by generosity spend in FY23, and while our generosity levels remain below competitors, we did make the decision to increase customer investment in what was a competitive market during the year. Moving now to gaming services on slide 27. EBITDA increased significantly, driven primarily by strong cost performance and the cycling of COVID in the PCP. On slide 28, you can see Integrity Services revenue and earnings increased strongly in the year. This was driven by higher monitored EGMs, price increases, and the previously mentioned cost control. Integrity Services CapEx of AUD 21 million was higher than the PCP, as we spent capital in preparation for the Tasmanian monitoring license, which is now live. We've entered into a sale agreement for the MPS Gaming Services business for AUD 21.3 million.
This follows the sale of the eBet Gaming Services business and is in line with our strategy. What we are now left with is a monitoring business, which is high quality Integrity Services business, and it's easier for the market to value. The MPS business was marginally profitable in FY23, delivering less than AUD 3 million of EBIT, as a significant number of EGM contracts rolled off from August 2022. MPS incurred CapEx of AUD 12 million in FY23. You'll see in the financial statements, the MPS business is held for sale at year-end, and we have taken an AUD 49 million impairment as a result. The sale is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to complete by the end of calendar year 2023. I'll now hand back to Adam.
As you can see, we've delivered on our FY23 priorities, and we've set the foundation for achieving our TAB25 targets. Despite soft market conditions and increased competitive response to our strategy, we delivered growth in active customers, revenue, and earnings. We're the only one of the big three wagering companies to grow revenue and EBITDA, and we've demonstrated that we'll be disciplined and won't waver from the implementation of our plan. These are all signs that our business is heading towards achieving its goal of being a more valuable company for investors. FY24 is the important middle leg of our three-year transformation. Having closed the product gap with competitors, we'll seek to become a product leader with innovative new opportunities for customers. We'll launch a new brand campaign in the H1 of the year.
We'll complete 50 next-gen venues in phase one of our retail upgrade. There'll be a Victorian license outcome, and we'll successfully transition into a new era, regardless of the outcome, and we'll continue to work to deliver level playing fields in New South Wales and South Australia. FY23 highlighted that Tabcorp is delivering on what we say we'll do. We've launched new products, increased speed to market, leveled playing fields, pivoted our gaming services business, and achieved our cost reduction strategy. Our FY24 priorities are clear, and we look forward to updating you on that journey this year. Tabcorp is becoming a more valuable company, and I can't wait to show you the fruits of the strong foundations when we reach TAB25. Thank you, and I'm happy to take your questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. One moment for the first question. First question comes from the line of Bradley Beckett from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Adam and Dan. Well done on a really strong cost performance. Are you able to share any early feedback that you've received from those next-gen venue upgrades that are already in place in Victoria and New South Wales?
Morning. I can... Look, it's very early days. We actually, the first one was actually only updated about four weeks ago, the first ones were in Victoria. I think we've got four or five in market at the moment. What I can say is that the response has been really positive and consistent across the in performance uplift across the ones that have opened in foot traffic, in turnover. It's been really positive. Without putting a number on it, we're really encouraged. The other thing that we're encouraged by, it's not just cannibalization from venues around them. Early days, but positive so far.
Yeah. Okay. Secondly, is the CapEx gonna skew a bit more heavily into the H2 ? With that 50 venue target, you've still got the Victorian license to be announced in November, so are you gonna sort of wait until that decision, or just gonna be, you know, keep, keep deploying through H1 ?
It's, it's Dan here. I'll, I'll take that one. No, it won't skew particularly to the H2. The good thing about having a strategy that's well in place and well set, it means that all of our programs are largely in, in train. A lot of the spend in FY24 remains geared towards digital and product, and so that should keep the CapEx profile reasonably smooth.
Okay. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.
Thank you for the questions. One moment for the next question. Next up, we have the line from Simon Thackray from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Oh, thanks, Dan. Thanks, Adam. Can you hear me okay?
Can do. Can do.
Yep, fantastic. Pardon me. Just in terms of the, that, again, on CapEx, Dan, roughly the, the buckets. You know, we've seen the buckets this year. Are they ostensibly the same sort of proportion in 24 between maintenance, growth, and sustainability?
Yeah. Good day, Simon. Look, it, it will be roughly the same. Everything's skewing towards growth and transformation and risk and sustainability. That's, that's really appropriate for both our strategy and the environment we're in. You'll see, as I said just before, a lot of spend on digital and product, and you'll see the, the spend on retail upgrades.
Dan, just for complete clarity, the D&A for MPS, which you've sort of indicated in the slides, about AUD 15 million, was that in or out of the AUD 240 million that you've delivered?
The 15... Yeah, no, the 15's in the 240. What I did call out was that there was about AUD 4 million or so of D&A reduction as we changed the classification of the MPS business to held for sale.
Gotcha. Gotcha, that's helpful. Okay. Then, Adam, just, just in terms of the competitive intensity, which has, you know, been written about, talked about, in, in the Q4 , in particular, can you talk about the current market environment in terms of competitive intensity, and what you're seeing from, you know, in terms of competitor spend and generosity, et cetera?
What I will say is, when you launch a, a transformation strategy, as, as Tabcorp, the market responds, and we saw that during the year. You know, we saw Betr launch probably before they wanted to, with a pretty disruptive strategy. We saw our biggest competitor massively increase their marketing spend into the H2 . We've seen Entain trying to disrupt the market. We've stuck to our guns, just focused on delivering, and really happy that we've done that, being disciplined. The market remains certainly competitive, but there's no-- You've seen Sportsbet's results and Entain's results. There's no secret that the market's a bit soft. So it's competitive. I expect it to increase in competitiveness going into the footy finals and into spring racing. And we're just focused on delivering the second leg of our plan.
Excellent. I'll leave it there. Thanks for that.
Thank you for the questions. Our next question comes from the line of Rohan Gallagher from Jarden Group. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everybody. Can you hear me?
Yep.
Yep.
Good morning, everybody. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Hi. Thank you for your time today. Two questions, if I may. Operationally, Adam, there seems to be a disconnect between the digital CapEx investment, you know, with the refreshed apps, new products, lack of market share gains, and the lack of market share gains. Is that a function of timing, exposure to key end markets? If you could unpack that, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Sure. I think the first thing I'd say, I'm actually really comfortable with our, our market share metric. We grew total share, and you can see our customer metrics there. There's a lot of green shoots, and that's new for us as a business. I'm really, really comfortable with what it's delivering. I don't think there's a disconnect at all. It does take time to create momentum, and we're absolutely on track. Look, I think the function of growth is a combination of things. It's new product, the brand we're relaunching at the moment, and also our spend on generosity and marketing. In an environment where our competitors were, were significantly increasing their spend on generosity and marketing, and us staying disciplined while focusing on our customer experience, I'm really comfortable with where we're at.
The other thing I'd just say is, that market share, metric is a light on the hill. I've said this before. We're focused on achieving it, but real- the real purpose was to change the focus and the culture and the plans of this company and turn this into a digital competitive organization, and it's absolutely doing that. You can see that right throughout our results, throughout our initiatives, through our, our focus on CapEx and how we're spending it, and frankly, even in our retail upgrades and how we're connecting the two. I'm, I'm really happy with how it's going and got confidence in Tab25 and, how we're going to deliver it.
Thank you. Thank you, Adam. Dan, first of all, best wishes in your new ventures. In relation to the OpEx guidance, AUD 630 million-AUD 640 million, seems to have been a little bit elevated on the pathway back towards your stated and maintained FY25 OpEx guidance. Is that a function of spending money to make money? Is it a function of specific new products or projects, or is it just a function of conservative guidance?
Thanks, Rohan. Look, I wouldn't describe it as conservative guidance. What I would say is that underlying, the cost base will continue to trend down through 2024 and 2025 with the benefits of Genesis.
I should highlight the Genesis program exited '23 with a run rate of savings of $20 million a year. That'll continue to build through '24 and '25. We have got a reasonable cost inflation environment, and we're also then reinvesting quite strongly in two areas. The brand that we've talked about a couple of times already on the call, that's a repositioning of the brand for sport and for younger audience, so that we can really drive our competitiveness. That comes at a cost, and that's really smart to do at this point in time, given where we landed in FY23. We're taking that chance to reinvest a little.
The second area is in capability around data and analytics. I think at the investor day in May, you know, the market heard from from Amy Shi-Nash, who who we brought in. She's really driving that data and analytics capability. We're gonna keep investing there.
Thanks, Dan. Whilst I've got you, just in regulation to your interest rate exposure, can you just comment about what's fixed and what's variable and, and any sensitivities to interest rate movements at the moment, please?
Sure. The USPP is fully drawn at $425 million. That's fixed at just under 8%, so there's about a $33 million per annum interest expense attached to that. The rest, you've got lease expense, which will be, you know, call it mid-single digits, and then you've got the floating rate exposure on the normal bank debt after that.
Great. Thank you very much, gentlemen.
Thank you for the questions. As a reminder, to ask question, please press star one one and wait for your name to be announced. One moment for the next question. The next question comes from the line of David Fabris from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Good morning.
If we just flip to, to slide nine, I was wondering if you could share some comments or, or maybe data points for the exit rates, or even trends in the June quarter or the H2 , just so we can sort of look at the trajectory of the business over the period.
Sorry, David, we lost you at the start of that question. Could you just go again, please?
Yeah, right. Just, just referring to slide nine and, and looking at some of those metrics you've put out there on a fiscal year basis. I was wondering if you could share some comments or data points, as we think about maybe the Q4 or the H2 , just so we can think about how the business is trending?
Sure. I don't think we've shared exit rates, but I think we're, they're pretty consistent with what you're seeing there, going into what we've seen so far. I mean, the market's soft overall, but in terms of those metrics, I'd be comfortable to say they're pretty consistent what we've seen at the start of the year.
Okay. Fair. Look, I know you made comments in your prepared remarks around the, the regulatory environment in respect to the banning of advertising sponsorships. I mean, you've got a, a pretty different position to your competitors. Do you think the regulator is opening to move to your position? Is anything happening with government currently, or is it kind of just paused at this juncture?
Look, all I'd say is we, we took that position very consciously because we believe in a sustainable wagering market and a safe ecosystem for Australians as part of that market. We don't think it's sustainable having overburdened gambling advertising exposed to at times where families are exposed. That's why we took the position. We stand by that position, and we're here for the long term and for a sustainable market.
Yeah. Got it. Look, just one last question from me. You know, great cost containment in, in FY23. Can you just help me understand, was there movements between above the line and below the line there or, or something else? You know, is there a risk we see the same thing happen in, in FY24?
Oh, thanks, David. It's Dan. I'll take that one. No, no, no movements between above the line and below the line. We were clear that we were starting a Genesis program and that we were bringing in some external help, and you can see in the significant items page there, we've, we've called, called that out. The costs in that area are really redundancies and the cost of driving that program.
The thing I originally-
Go on. Sorry. I, I was just curious, were they originally within the guidance, and you moved them to below the line, though?
No.
Okay. All right. Excellent. Thank you very much for clarifying.
The thing I was gonna add, just, for interest, with Dan leaving, we've got a Chief Transformation Officer in Robert Fraser, who owns the Genesis program, and owns it for the second leg of the journey. Genesis continues, and we're on target for our TAB25 costs, cost target.
Thank you for the questions. Our next question comes from the line of Rohan Sundram from MST Financial. Please go ahead.
Hi, Adam and Dan. Can you hear me?
Yep.
Can do.
Thanks.
Hi, Rohan.
Yeah, thanks, guys. Hi, guys. Just the, just the one from me. Around the cash turnover, I noticed the H2 is implying about a mid-teens year-on-year decline. Not sure if that's accurate, but if so, appreciate it was a tough comp, but can you just talk us through how you've seen the foot traffic into the retail and the consumer environment, and whether that was a partial driver or if it was just largely the, the comp?
Rohan, it's Dan. I'll let Adam talk to foot traffic. No, your implied run rate number's not right. It was basically flat year-on-year in the H2 .
Venue foot traffic is strong. Our focus on, from a venue perspective is cash. Cash is one measure. Digital customers and conversion and active customers is something we're also very focused on. In pubs and clubs, foot traffic continues to be strong even currently.
Okay. Yeah, just on the, on the H2 calc, it was... I noticed H1 cash turnover up about 60% odd. By the full year, it was up about 25%. Are they correct? If so, what that implies for the H2 . I'll have a look at my numbers. Happy to revisit.
Yeah. No, we'll take it offline, Rohan, but no, I stand by what I said before.
No, it's Dan. All the best. Thanks.
One moment for the next questions. Our next question comes from Joseph Koh, from Blackwattle Investment Partners. Please go ahead.
Hi. Morning, guys. Just had a few questions on the NPS sale. You mentioned $4 million of D&A was avoided because it was, put up as held for sale. Was there much OpEx related to that at all, that was avoided during the year from that?
Sorry, sorry, Joseph. Can you just repeat the question, please?
Oh, yeah. You mentioned that, I think AUD 4 million of D&A was sort of avoided because NPS was put up as held for sale.
Ah.
Just wondering.
Yep.
if there was any offset as well, that was, related to that, that was also, not put into the proper line because it was put up for sale.
No. When you move to held for sale, it doesn't affect that line.
Right.
Only affects the D&A line.
Right. Can I ask, what is the total OpEx for NPS then, for the full year?
Yep. There's about AUD 5 million of direct costs and AUD 12 million-AUD 15 million of allocated overhead.
I'm just wondering, if NPS is now going to be sold at some point, should that not reduce FY25 target OpEx from the original AUD 600 million-AUD 620 million by AUD 5 million-AUD 20 million?
No.
excluded in FY25.
It's not, it's not material because if you think about what I just said, there's only what's leaving is AUD 5 million of direct costs. The allocated costs don't, don't go anywhere.
Right. Okay. That it should have been just maybe AUD 5 million, but not material then, seeing this is at point.
Well, it keeps you within the range of 600 to 620, is my point.
Right. Okay. Then AUD 12 million-AUD 15 million of allocated costs, that will just go into wagering or corporate, I guess. Is that right?
Integrity Services.
Integrity. Okay. Yeah. Okay, thanks.
Thank you for the questions. I would now like to hand the call back to Adam for closing remarks.
Thank you. I'd just like to reiterate that, you know, we're in a three-year transformation. We're really happy with year one. We're now really focused on year two. We look forward to meeting with you over the next coming few days. Thanks, everyone.
That concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participating. You may now disconnect.