Good morning and thanks for joining us today. I'm Sue van der Merwe, Chief Executive Officer of The Lottery Corporation, and I'm pleased to announce our financial results for FY 2025. I'm joined by our CFO, Adam Newman, and together we'll take you through the investor presentation lodged with the ASX this morning. I'll start on slide 4. This slide clearly demonstrates the resilience of our business and ability to deliver sustainable growth over time. The lottery industry's long-term trend in turnover growth is in line with or above inflation and population growth. Profitability has also grown over time, with digital share gains underpinning VC margin expansion. Over the last six years, Lottery's digital share has risen from 23% to 42%, and Lottery's VC margin has grown from 23% to almost 27%.
The yellow line on the graph represents the three-year average turnover, which smooths the impact of the short-term jackpot fluctuations. In line with the long-term trend, this grew again in FY 2025. It's a proven model that grows sustainably and delivers for all stakeholders. Slides 5 and 6 provide an overview of highlights for the year and the major initiatives we've delivered. We've achieved a resilient financial performance in FY 2025, and that was underpinned by the strength of our diversified game portfolio, proactive portfolio management, ongoing benefits from customer-focused innovation, and finally, disciplined cost management. Our FY 2025 performance, supported by a strong financial position, robust cash flow, and a highly cash-generative business model, underpinned the board's decision to increase the full-year ordinary dividend to AUD 0.165 per share, up from AUD 0.16 last year. This highlights the confidence in our outlook and the sustainability of our operating model.
This result was delivered despite a 13% reduction in Division 1 prize offerings across our two jackpot games, and economic pressures that saw some consumers become more discerning with their discretionary spend. In that context, our portfolio performed well, with healthy underlying participation and steady performance from our base games. We tactically accelerated jackpot sequences where appropriate, stimulating larger jackpots and delivering four AUD 100 million draws in FY 2025, three for Powerball and one for Oz Lotto. Game evolution remains central to our growth strategy, and I'm very pleased with the successful game changes delivered by our team this year. In May, we refreshed Saturday Lotto, lifting the Division 1 prize offer from AUD 5 million to AUD 6 million and introducing a AUD 0.10 per game price rise. Saturday is our second largest game, with strong player loyalty. Early results show strong price retention and a positive customer response.
Weekday Windfall, which added a Friday draw to our Monday and Wednesday offer in late FY 2024, also continues to perform well. Looking ahead into FY 2026, we're on schedule to deliver Powerball changes, with bigger prizes supported by a AUD 0.20 per game price change, and that is subject to regulatory approval. Implementation is planned for November, meaning eight months of impact this financial year. Customer experience is a key focus in our business, with our targeted investments in CX supporting another year of growth in higher margin digital lottery sales. With digital share now at 42%, we continue to see upside as customer preferences evolve and customer engagement deepens. This work, including improvements in onboarding, greater personalization, and retail upgrades, is driving a better customer experience across all channels. In parallel, we commenced the rollout of new lottery terminals, completing Queensland on schedule.
The new terminals modernize our retail footprint and support future innovation, delivering a better in-store experience. They will also deliver a cost-efficiency benefit. As Australia's leading lottery operator, we remain committed to responsible play. It's central to how we deliver our products and to maintaining community trust. We also deepened our community connection by integrating the Play for Purpose charity raffle into The Lott app and website, supporting hundreds of grassroots organizations and making it easier for customers to give back to causes they care about. Keno delivered year-on-year revenue and earnings growth. Strong retail performance was supported by refreshed branding, stronger local area marketing, and increased venue visitation. Overall, we stayed disciplined on capital and costs, protecting our margins and underpinning a resilient result. That discipline and focus positions us well for the year ahead.
Importantly, our operations generated AUD 2.4 billion in returns to state and territory governments and retail businesses in FY 2025, reinforcing the strength of this community-centered model. I'll now hand over to Adam to take you through the financials in more detail, starting on slide 7.
Thanks, Sue. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us this morning. This slide gives us a snapshot of our group results for the year. FY 2025 was a year of disciplined execution, a year of strategic investment, and a year of continued delivery for our shareholders, even with a softer jackpot cycle. Revenue declined 6% as anticipated, driven by lower Division 1 prizes. EBITDA came in at AUD 749 million, and this was down 9%. Disciplined cost control meant we absorbed much of the final separation impact. Net profit before significant items was also down 11.2%, again, reflecting jackpot cycle dynamics. Importantly, for the first time since demerger, there were no significant items. Separation is complete, and that gives us a clean slate and a strong platform for growth. Around 85% of our debt is fixed or hedged.
We also generate strong interest income from our cash balances, and that means that our earnings are materially insulated from interest rate movements. We delivered a final fully franked dividend of AUD 0.085 per share, taking full-year dividend to AUD 0.165 per share fully franked. That's a 3% increase on last year and maintaining a 100% payout ratio. We can now move to slide number 8, and this bridges our FY 2025 EBITDA with the PCP. Our portfolio diversification, our disciplined cost management, and our active portfolio management all helped cushion the impact of lower jackpot activity. The key headwinds were a 13% decline in Division 1 prize money and higher technology costs from the full-year impact of separation, both in contracts and people.
We kept a sharp focus on OpEx, and that allows us to mitigate the impact of separation and inflation, as well as absorb some of the pressures from lower revenues. Several other factors also offset these pressures. Firstly, the successful launch of Weekday Windfall, active portfolio and sequence management, with continued digital growth, even with fewer larger jackpots, which helped increase our margins. Keno held steady with strong retail performance, offsetting expected digital softness after the introduction of spend limits. We can move now to slide number 9. Our balance sheet remains strong, and our cash-generative model gave us the flexibility to lift our dividend, and this was despite softer sales. OpEx was AUD 370 million. Pleasingly, this was below our AUD 310 million-AUD 320 million range. That's thanks to tight control over discretionary spend, headcount, and better than expected procurement outcomes.
We now have a clean OpEx base, and our ongoing optimization programs will continue to drive efficiencies. Looking ahead, we'll seek to keep OpEx growth below normalized revenue growth over time. Growth investments will be funded through savings, keeping cost discipline as a core focus. CapEx in FY 2025 is AUD 78 million, focused on technology and customer experience. We expect CapEx to rise to around AUD 100 million in FY 2026 and remain elevated at similar levels in FY 2027 and FY 2028 as we invest in digital transformation, retail, and core infrastructure. Net debt to EBITDA sits at 2.9x , liquidity is AUD 630 million, and average debt tenor is four and a half years. The board remains committed to our three to four times leverage target, and we will return any excess capital in the most tax-efficient way possible. In short, FY 2025 proved the resilience of our business.
We navigated a softer revenue environment, we completed separation, we maintained a strict cost discipline, and we delivered higher returns to our shareholders. Our priorities remain clear: digital growth driving margin expansion, operational efficiency, and disciplined capital allocation. With strong cash flows and a robust balance sheet, The Lottery Corporation is well positioned to deliver long-term value for our shareholders. Thank you, and I'll now hand back to Sue.
Thanks, Adam. Let's look now at the results by segment, starting with lotteries on slide 11. After any record year, some reversion to the mean is expected, and that was the case this year following the extraordinary jackpot run in FY 2024. That included two AUD 150 million jackpots and, of course, the record AUD 200 million Powerball, an event we model to occur roughly once every seven years. Our underlying performance held up well, given Division 1 prize offers were AUD 347 million lower than the prior year, and some customer behavior was impacted by economic conditions. Median participation trends remain healthy, albeit year-on-year participation reduced in response to the lower jackpots. Frequency of play was steady overall and up for registered players, indicating stronger customer engagement with that segment. In its first full year, Weekday Windfall delivered a standout performance. The additional Friday draw generated a meaningful AUD 90 million in incremental turnover.
This success allows us to shift our marketing focus from adoption to driving engagement among existing players. slide 12 looks at our customer numbers and lottery's turnover by channel. Following last year's surge, when an extra half a million customers joined our ecosystem, hoping to win our largest Powerball jackpots, overall customer numbers moderated, as expected, in FY 2025. Even so, over the past five years, active registered customer numbers have grown at a 4% CAGR, showing that our portfolio continues to resonate with customers. We see significant upside in continuing to convert non-registered into registered customers, and we've launched targeted programs to accelerate this shift, including simplified instant registration and personalized CRM campaigns. These initiatives are delivering results with an improved IDV pass rate now at 85% and stronger onboarding completion.
In terms of customer acquisition, we saw a continuation of last year's trend, with 62% of new customers under the age of 45 years. Looking now at turnover by channel, both retail and digital were impacted by the lower Division 1 prize money on offer versus the PCP. With unregistered retail customers less sticky than those signed up, retail was more impacted than digital by the lower prize offers and high-profile events. Notwithstanding that, retail continues to be our largest channel and a cornerstone of the lottery's business, playing a critical role in building brand presence and strengthening customer connection. slide 13 illustrates that underlying demand trends for our base games remain resilient. Customers responded positively to the Weekday Windfall game launch, and the Saturday Lotto price change was well-timed as the next game in the portfolio to be strengthened.
Like for like, turnover levels across our top three games were relatively stable, with Oz Lotto slightly up and Powerball and Saturday Lotto slightly down. Turning to our jackpot games, Oz Lotto and Powerball on slide 14, Oz Lotto and Powerball had very different jackpot outcomes this year, demonstrating the strength of a diversified portfolio. The team actively managed jackpot sequences to optimize outcomes across the jackpot category. Oz Lotto responded well, delivering a 21% uplift in total prizes offered. Powerball, on the other hand, did not go beyond AUD 100 million and overall fell 31% below FY 2024 in total prizes offered. When we adjust for the unusually strong jackpot run in FY 2024, compared with the more subdued activity in FY 2025, we saw a AUD 600 million movement in turnover year- on- year. This kind of variability is inherent in lotteries and typically evens out over the long term.
That said, given the unprecedented Powerball jackpots in FY 2024, the swing in 2025 versus the PCP was certainly pronounced. Onto slide 15, we look at product innovation and new game launches driving growth across the portfolio. This is a strength and a proven capability in TLC . At the half, I spoke about the importance of Saturday Lotto as the long-term foundation of our base game portfolio. It is our second biggest game, supported by a loyal customer base with the highest proportion of people playing favorite numbers. We considered very carefully what change we would make, informed by extensive customer research, and in May, we made the change, which has been a great success. It has been well received by players, with very strong early price retention. We do expect that to settle into the usual range of 50%- 75% over time.
Looking ahead, the next game we are set to evolve is Powerball. Once regulatory approvals are in place, these changes will ensure it continues to hold its place as our premium jackpot game. Now on to Keno. Slides 16 and 17 highlight that Keno continues to be a retail-centric game, performing strongly in recent years. This growth has been supported by increased venue visitation as consumers increasingly seek out value when socializing. We've worked closely with our venue partners to position Keno as a fun, social game that can be enjoyed with friends, and it's working. The chance to win AUD 1 million for just AUD 1 remains a compelling proposition. Retail turnover grew 8% on the PCP, a very pleasing result. That growth was partly offset by a near 20% decline in online turnover.
This was largely driven by our voluntary introduction of mandated weekly spend limits, a proactive step to strengthen customer protections for online Keno. This initiative, along with continuous play alerts introduced in May, underscores our commitment to responsible play and long-term sustainability. It sets us apart from others in the market who have taken a more aggressive approach to marketing online Keno. We've chosen a more measured path, prioritizing customer care over short-term customer acquisition. Slide 19 gives an overview of TLC 's unique investment proposition: a strong market position supported by long-dated licenses, powerful brands, a resilient retail footprint, broad community acceptance, and a balanced portfolio that delivers both defensive cash flows and attractive growth potential. Now, turning to our strategy and priorities for FY 2026, which are outlined on slides 20 and 21.
Our vision is to be the world's best lottery operator, and that's not just a tagline; it's a clear ambition that guides every decision we make. It's about delivering positive impacts for all our stakeholders: our customers, partners, regulators, and shareholders. To get there, our strategy is focused on long-term value creation. That means innovating our products, accelerating digital transformation, and driving operational efficiency. FY 2025 was a year of strong execution and delivery. We made real progress, and we're focused on keeping that momentum going. On product, Set for Life is the next game flagged for change after Powerball. It plays a unique role in the portfolio with its AUD 20,000 a month for 20 years proposition. It attracts a different segment of player and adds valuable diversification.
We're also investing in customer experience, rolling out new in-store payment options, expanding automation and self-service, and continuing the rollout of the new retail terminals. With the Queensland lottery network now complete, this project is a key enabler of our broader digital and omnichannel strategy, and it's helping us grow our registered customer base. To amplify our community impact, we intend to scale the Play for Purpose charity raffle by increasing the number of tickets available in each raffle. This will create a larger prize pool while also raising more funds for hundreds of Australian charities. At the same time, we're continuing our program of work to enhance the value of our licenses. A key part of that is advocating for a more effective regulatory framework for lotteries and Keno.
Following the federal election in May, the government is still considering its response to several reviews into gambling and harm, including foreign match lotteries and online Keno. We remain actively engaged, advocating for a well-regulated industry that prioritizes strong customer protections, safeguards community returns, and upholds player trust. There are a few related developments worth calling out in this area. In the Northern Territory, a new minimum 50% tax rate, less GST, has been introduced on profits from lottery ticket reselling and matching activities. This applies to operators using internet gaming licenses to sell foreign match lottery products. We do not hold such a license. In the U.S., the Oregon Lottery is moving to ban sales via courier services to customers outside the state, joining other U.S. states in tightening controls. These third-party courier services buy lottery tickets on behalf of customers, often in other parts of the world.
Oregon has been a key hub of that activity, so this is a significant step. It reflects the growing concern about the risks these services pose to the integrity of the industry. It is not just Oregon. The World Lottery Association has also raised concerns about courier services, warning that they undermine regulated lottery markets. Together, these developments send a clear message: the global industry is taking steps to preserve the lottery sector's integrity. Slide 22 outlines our agenda to accelerate the benefits we can unlock from digital transformation and modernizing our tech ecosystem. This is a critical enabler of our strategy, and to support this, we're stepping up our investment. This work is essential to sustaining our growth trajectory, fast-tracking registered customer growth, and delivering cost efficiencies and risk reduction. While it's a step up in investment, we'll remain disciplined in line with our capital allocation framework.
Concluding on slide 23, looking back at FY 2025, we delivered a resilient financial performance, once again highlighting the defensive nature of our business. Our strong financial position and cash flow supported an increase in the full year dividend. We've started FY 2026 with good momentum in the business. The team is focused on generating revenue growth, customer conversion, transforming the customer experience, maximizing operational efficiency, and continuing to progress license value enhancement initiatives. The full year benefit of the Saturday Lotto price change will flow through in FY 2026, and a Powerball entry price increase is planned for later this year. We expect continued digital share growth and further productivity gains to support margin expansion and long-term value creation. Finally, a few words on my upcoming retirement.
In March, I announced my intention to retire later this year after 35 years in the lotteries industry, including the last three as the CEO of The Lottery Corporation. It is a privilege to lead this wonderful company and a team of such talented and passionate people. We have built a strong business with a solid foundation and a strategy to deliver long-term sustainable growth. As we announced last month, Wayne Pickup will commence as our new MD and CEO later this year. Wayne led Allwyn North America for the past seven years and was previously CEO at Lotto New Zealand. He brings deep industry experience and a strong track record, and we look forward to introducing him to you in due course. The Lottery Corporation is in great hands, and it has an exciting future ahead. Thank you, and with that, we'll now open the line for questions.
Thank you. If you do wish to ask a question, please press the star key, then one on your telephone, and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press the star key, then two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. We also request that you please limit your questions to two at a time, and then please rejoin the queue if you have any further questions. Your first question is from Adrian Lemme from Citi. Go ahead, thank you.
Good morning, Sue and Adam, and congrats, Sue, on your long career, and thanks for taking our questions over the years. My first question is on the Powerball like-for-likes. They were down 2.2% for the full year after being up 2.4% in the first half, which to me implies about - 7% like-for-likes in the second half. The data seems to suggest this continued into August and is broad-based across jackpot sizes. Can you talk to what's driving that second half weakness and if you expect this to continue into the first half, please?
Yeah, hi, Adrian. It's Adam here. I'll take that to start with. As we've discussed in the past, those like-for-likes are not an exact science. They tend to be an approximation depending upon the information that we've got available at that overall point in time. We've talked about the fact that in some cases the small sample sizes, the like-for-like for Powerball for this instance only has 40 observations, for example. Whilst they are directional, I think ultimately at the end of the day, you have to stand back and look at the medium to longer term. This business historically has been able to produce that, the revenue of 4%- 5% over that overall time period. Focusing in on one short period, I think, has to be taken with a little bit of caution.
With regards to the jackpot games, there are a number of factors that were played into it. We talked at the half, for example, where Powerball was in, we had a large Powerball draw at the same time as the Black Friday in November. They don't necessarily operate independently of each other. We did see an uplift in odds in participation frequency and spend, whereas Powerball did have lower participation and spend but did have stable frequency across the period of time at the end of the day. Ultimately, at the end of the day, we don't see any major concerns, and the price rise coming up in November will sort of help get us, will help uplift the Powerball from that perspective as well.
Thanks for that, Adam. Can I just ask a follow-up? I think previously you've spoken to, like, broadly the retention of price increases. I think about half to 2/3 is what you expect to get when you put these price increases through. Can you clarify what you expect with this increase on Powerball, please?
I think typically we work on a range of 50%- 75%, and with Powerball, our expectation will be it'll be in that range this time as well.
Okay, thank you.
Adrian, I might just add to that. I think previously on jackpot games, particularly when the jackpots have rolled following a change, our retention has been more at the higher end. You know, I think Powerball was running at a P5 through this year, and we, through a lot of acceleration activity that you would have seen that we undertook through the year, lifted that to a P15. Obviously, we just didn't get through to the higher jackpot rolls. When you don't get the higher jackpots, you don't get the flow-on effect into the lower end of the jackpot sequences as well. Really, what we're seeing is just an impact from the fact that we're not getting those high jackpot rolls through, which we hope to get to through this financial year.
Thanks, Sue.
Thank you. Your next question is from Andre Fromyhr from UBS. Go ahead, thank you.
Thank you. Good morning. Maybe just a follow-up question about that sort of like-for-like behavior. Adam, I understand your points around the sort of rough science of the way you've presented those growth rates. I might just refer to some of the other detail that you've provided, which is an estimate versus the turnover and the revenue versus your model. Am I right in understanding you've called out a AUD 50 million revenue headwind in this presentation, and that compares with a AUD 100 million revenue headwind at the half? Is it accurate then to say that you're calling out the second half performance as performing better than the theoretical model?
Yes, I think that's right, Adrian.
Okay. Also, regarding the Powerball approvals, I guess November timing is sooner than we'd seen for the sort of previous annual cycle going in May each year. Is there anything we could read into that timing shift, you know, coming six months earlier? Otherwise, how do we think about the broader pace of innovation? Are there opportunities to do more each year?
I'll take that. The Powerball one we moved, I mean, part of the reason we moved it earlier was because we want to get more of the impact into this financial year. Given the low sort of jackpot activity that we had in 2025, you know, we want to give ourselves the opportunity to get to the higher jackpot activity as much as we can through FY 2026. I think Saturday also being very well accepted and tracking so well gives us confidence that we can bring in the change on Powerball successfully, perhaps a little bit earlier than we've otherwise done. Going forward, I've always said we have done changes close like this before, but the more general approach, as you've pointed out and seen, has been more around the sort of 12 months.
I think every time we look at a game change, we look at what's happening in the rest of the portfolio. As you know, how does this change influence other games in the portfolio and what's the best timing associated with that sort of review? I can't say what will happen in the future, but certainly what I can say is that there will be continuing game innovation, and I expect that our pattern of the past will continue into the future. From time to time, we may do things a little bit more quickly if we think that that's the right call.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Your next question is from Kai Erman from Jefferies. Go ahead, thank you.
Thanks for taking my question. First one, just on the sort of growth CapEx that you guys have flagged over the next three years, would be keen to dig in a little bit into what those digital transformation and ecosystem initiatives are and how you think about the returns from those from an earnings perspective.
Hi, Kai. It's Adam here. Essentially, the CapEx profile for the next few years that we've called out, sort of that AUD 100 million for next year and then FY 2027 and 2028, it is a combination of a number of different things between modernizing the core infrastructure and investing in terminals, in addition to the investment in the digital side of the overall business. The speed to market, for example, with game changes is a good example of some of the ability within our core, that would be more core infrastructure, but it has an ability for us to get the product to market quicker. It also gives us the ability from a core infrastructure to get more personalization and scale into the system as a consequence. Overall, at the end of the day, a cornerstone of our overall strategy is to grow a known or registered customer base.
We know that known customers spend more than unknown customers. Our ability to actually convert more of those by making the digital experience cleaner and easier for them will help us drive that incremental turnover from a large and existing customer base.
Okay, perfect. Thanks, Adam. Just one follow-up, just regarding those sort of accelerated jackpots that you guys did over the second half, how should we think about the reserve levels going into the sort of FY 2026 if we continue to have some weak jackpot sequences? Do you guys sort of still have that ability to push the accelerated sequences at this point in time?
Yeah, on Powerball, we did do 33 weeks, actually, of accelerated sequence through FY 2025. The normal approach that we take moving into a game change is to manage the prize offers for that game ahead of the change, to put it in the best position possible, to have the slot sequences to the more sort of normalized levels leading into a game change so that when we put the change in, the uplift is noticeable to players and they see the benefit coming through from the higher price that they're paying. We're doing that at the moment with Powerball. That is actually just part of our normal activity anyway that we would have been doing. We've also increased the reserve contribution from 2.5% to 3.5%. Again, that's something we do from time to time leading into game change to really strengthen that.
You know, that we've got a lot in the bank sort of thing to push the game change when we launch it. We're doing that with Powerball. That's in place at the moment, and that will rebuild those reserves. We did that with Oz Lotto before we made the change there as well, and we saw that that built the reserve back quite quickly.
Great, thanks. I'll pop that on there.
Thank you. Your next question is from David Fabris from Macquarie. Go ahead, thank you.
Hi, Sue. Hi, Adam. I'll start off my first question. Just lottery's digital penetration. It looked to be about 43% in the second half. That's up about 2.6% sequentially. Is that mostly driven by a favorable mix, or are there other factors at play around that? As part of that question, do we still work with the rough rule of thumb that 1% digital penetration is worth about AUD 5 million of EBITDA?
Yeah, hi, David. It's Adam here. I'll have a go at your question. The first question, I think it's a bit of both. We've been quite pleased with where digital has gone over the course of this year, particularly when you take into consideration the lower jackpots as we called out. That's the first question. I'm trying to remember what was your second question? Sorry, David, could you repeat that?
I just wanted to clarify if 1% of digital penetration is still worth about AUD 5 million of EBITDA.
Yeah, sorry mate. I think it's a consequence. We've actually said about AUD 5 million. I think given the post-commission rate increase, that number has probably trended up a bit, and we would drift more towards the AUD 6 million now, I think.
Okay, perfect. Just my second question. I noticed in the guidance that you haven't provided anything on operating costs. Are you able to provide any insights, like a range, or are you kind of signaling that you're stepping away from providing cost guidance from here?
No, we flagged that we've got now a pretty clean OpEx base, which is good. Our current intention is to provide guidance again at the half, and this has been consistent with past practice. We haven't provided guidance previously at the full year, so it's not like we're stepping away from it. It's not our intention at this point in time to give guidance now, but I can make a couple of comments if you like. First of all, as we've talked about in the past, 50% of our costs are people, and we did give a 3.5% pay increase at the half. As you look into FY 2026, that's an influence. Non-people costs, particularly probably in the technology space, are running a little bit above that 3.5%.
We will have some project OpEx associated with a step up in CapEx, so there'll be a bit of upward pressure from OpEx coming there. Our setting that will be our optimization program that we've been working on for the last couple of years at the end of the day. They're probably the main things that I'd say in relation to FY2026. Just to reiterate, at the half, it would be our intention again to provide guidance, noting that we've got a new CEO coming in.
Yeah, keep it to clarify. You'd always expect that, you know, when you're seeing good revenue growth coming through the business, and we should this year, given the price rises and the luck factor, that OpEx growth should trend below revenue growth.
Yeah, that's our goal, you know, to get it below normalized revenue growth over time. There can be some ebbs and flows too, mostly dependent upon where you're at from a project OpEx perspective. We've had some good traction in terms of our cost focus, and I think you saw that in the second half, where second half costs were essentially flat to the PCP at the end of the day. Yeah, you're right, that's our overall target, where we've got costs sort of below our normalized revenue over time.
Yeah, okay. Sorry, just to follow up on that. I mean, are we talking about an EBITDA this year where we could see cost growth at revenue growth given this project cost? That's I guess what I'm trying to work out here.
I'm not trying to give guidance. It would be, I mean, you've always got to caveat it with subject to where you turn out from a, you know, jackpot perspective. On a normalized basis, no, that wouldn't be our expectation.
Okay, that's perfect. I really appreciate the insights. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question is from Rohan Sundram from MST Financial. Go ahead, thank you.
Thank you. Hi, Sue and Adam. Thanks for this. Sue, congratulations on a very distinguished career as well. Just the one question for me around the consumer environment. You mentioned you made some comments earlier. Are you able to just elaborate on exactly how you're seeing the consumer environment and any changes, notable changes to player behavior? Thank you.
Sure. Thank you for the congratulations and the one earlier. In terms of participation, frequency, spend, which are three of the key metrics that we look at, of all of our active registered customers, which of course we have are very, you know, known customers and we have very accurate data on, participation was down across the games, but most pronounced in Powerball and with the exception of Oz Lotto due to the jackpot activity on that. That is consistent with what you see in terms of the customer numbers in the presentation. That is a factor of the lower activity in terms of prize offers that we put into the market in 2025. Spend is up across most games on a spend per occasion basis. Saturday's pretty stable. Powerball's down. Again, jackpot. I think that's a positive sign.
The spend per occasion being stable, that shows people are still engaged in the portfolio. Frequency's up across all of the games. Basically what it's saying is that the players that we've kept and we've still, you know, are playing more often and spending more on each occasion that they play. We've lost some of the participation that we gained through all of that Powerball jackpot activity. Interestingly, the Gen Y cohort is the one that we've got the, it's now become our largest segment actually of all of our active registered customers. It's the one that we had the highest increase in new players in. It also is one that we had quite a bit of churn in from the players that came in last year.
We look at that cohort and they are really, I guess, a cohort which is, you know, more sitting in that mortgage belt type family budget sort of situation. Our deduction from that is that they are responding to some of those economic pressures. Baby boomers, the oldest sort of segment, is absolutely the largest segment by value. They spend the most, quite significantly up on the other generations. They're also the biggest users of retail, but they're also becoming increasingly digital savvy. Their digital penetration is on the rise and their omnichannel participation is quite strong as well. That's actually a really good metric for us. I think overall, you know, the lottery business is built on this model of wide participation across a broad range of age groups. That's holding true. That's a really strong sign for the business and its defensiveness and future sustainable growth opportunity.
We are continuing to fill the pipeline from the bottom with people coming in at Gen X, Gen Y, and even Gen Z. We are hanging on to the baby boomers, the sort of older players. What we see is as people go through that life cycle and through those age demographics, they become the more valuable players. People are spending less at the younger demographic, understandably, as we take them through the customer journey and they go through those life stages, they become more sticky and they become more valuable to us. All the initiatives we've got in the plan that we've spoken about are all set to drive that traction strongly.
That's great. Thanks, Sue.
Thank you. Your next question is from Matt Ryan from Barrenjoey. Go ahead, thank you.
Thank you. I just wanted to ask about the upcoming Powerball change. Just before I ask my question, just to confirm that there's no change to the game matrix.
That's right, Matt.
I was just interested in your comments about slowing the accelerated jackpot trend ahead of that, which you would normally do before a matrix change. I guess just the thought process behind the price change and how you're going to promote it to customers. Maybe as part of that, I just see on slide 15 you talk about leveraging the headroom in the current matrix to support the higher jackpot offers. If you did talk about the marketing strategy, how are you going to come through to customers and ask for that price rise in return for value?
Yeah. Price rises with a consequential sort of flow down into all of the prize divisions and a benefit delivered to players through that has been something we've done a number of times successfully over the years. As you'd know, we don't always do matrix changes. We still think that the matrix that we have in place for this game, I mean, it's high odds. It's still got the ability to deliver through to those AUD 150 million jackpots. As I said earlier, we were running at that P5 level and we accelerated through to get us through to P15. We're nowhere near even P50 in this year that we've been through. The model and the matrix are there to support that. The positioning of going into a game change is not necessarily to do particularly with only when we're not doing a matrix change.
It's what we always do, even when we're putting through a price increase on a jackpot game, to moderate the acceleration of sequences when we're leading into a game change so that we've got the ability to accelerate them when we come out of the game change. That's part of the strategy, to help cement the game change in and have it accepted by customers, the ability then to go out and offer those higher jackpot offers and therefore better value for the price that the customer's paying. That's what we'll be doing. Ultimately, Powerball is the premium jackpot game in our portfolio. This also will get the price higher than Oz Lotto, which we think is good in terms of that position. This is a premium jackpot game. You can win a lot when you win it, and people are prepared to pay a bit more for that value.
The way we position and communicate these changes to players is talk about the benefits, higher prizes, very open and transparent about the fact that the price has gone up, but very much focus on the benefits and then really push hard into the offers that we're putting out to the market and really advertise those really strongly. The personalized communication that we'll be doing through all of our CRM activity and using our new customer data platform, which is enabling us to personalize at scale. We'll be able to use that for the first time on a game change because, as you know, it just went in towards the end of last year.
Got it. Thank you. A question for Adam, maybe on operating costs. I think a year ago you were talking about, I believe, AUD 10 million or AUD 15 million of separation costs. Was that the sort of number that you think ended up transpiring in the FY 2025 year?
Yeah, hi Matt. I think we said AUD 12 million was the approximation that we gave. Yes, that would be on a look-back basis. I think that AUD 12 million probably materially holds would be the answer.
Thank you. I appreciate you're not giving guidance to FY 2026, but the cost performance did improve, I guess, relative to your initial commentary a year ago throughout the FY 2025 year. Do you sort of view that at a higher level as potentially benefiting from, I guess, easier cost mitigation exercises? I'm just trying to get a gauge on, you know, how to think about the go forward operating cost base and how much, I don't want to use the word low hanging fruit, but you know, how easy it might be to refine that cost base over time.
Yeah, I'm not 100% sure I'm clear on the question. I mean, we spent a lot. Maybe I'll try and, sorry.
I guess a year ago you sort of gave some color on where costs would be, came in below that in February and the revised number was lower. At this result, you come in lower again. I'm just curious on, you know, where are you getting those cost savings from? Are there, is there more, what did you find throughout the FY 2025 year that you were probably surprised with or didn't think that you'd be able to achieve when you were giving that initial guide a year ago?
Yeah. Maybe I'll break down in terms without going into too much granularity on the call because we can pick up later, but it probably fell into a number of different themes. In terms of our optimization activities, there wasn't a single large activity. There was a number of activities that collectively together gave us good traction. Obviously, as we worked through separation in an environment of lower revenue, it was important to be addressing our cost base at the same time. Probably the area that outperformed expectations would have been in our procurement and vendor rationalization. When we went through separation, we basically went onto a one-year cycle for a bunch of contracts to enable us to have a more strategic approach to address those particular contract renegotiations. That was probably the largest aspect of the overall savings. We had some savings from transitioning in our data center.
Contract and license rightsizing, rationalization of our property footprint is probably not too much more left in that at the present point in time. There probably are the network transformation, rolling out to network transformation in our communications at our retail networks is probably the other area, along with just, I would say, strong discretionary spend controls. Those were the main thematics in terms of the cost for this particular year. As we go forward, our intention is that we've still got a program and we'll be pushing to see if we can still continue to deliver to make sure that we continue to sort of perform well for the cost relative to where we're at from a revenue perspective.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question is from Justin Barratt from CLSA. Go ahead, thank you.
Hi guys, apologies. I missed a lot of your prepared remarks on another call. One that I just wanted to ask as well was just in relation to Saturday Lotto. You mentioned that the game changes have started quite well and that your retention is probably above that 50%- 75% range for now. I just wanted to try and understand, is there anything about the game changes or Saturday Lotto itself that lends itself to potentially having a higher retention than what you've traditionally seen in the past?
I would say the one thing is that the fact that people play favorite numbers at a higher rate than on other games. That does mean that there's a high degree of loyalty with those players, obviously to whatever the size of the entry type is. When we put the price up on games, one of the great things about lottery games is people can choose to accept the full price increase or they can drop down to a lower entry type, buy less games effectively, but still have a chance to be in there to win. In fact, that's a benefit that regulators see as well in our games when we talk about price increases because customers still have the choice to spend less if they choose or spend the same if they choose to and still be in it to win it type thing.
On Saturday, the fact that people are quite loyal to their favorite numbers is because they're less likely to want to give up any of their game panels and reduce the numbers that they're taking. That is absolutely one factor on Saturday. Having said that, we've done changes on Saturday before and we've probably been more at the 50%- 75% retention rate. Perhaps also the fact that we're in a period of low jackpot activity is definitely another influencing factor. This is a portfolio of games. We do promote cross-play across the portfolio, hence why we're saying we think it might moderate back to normal levels, particularly once the Powerball change goes through. Hopefully, if we start to get the bigger rolls through on Powerball and we also get good jackpot activity on ours, there could be an influence back on Saturday.
Fantastic. Thank you very much for that. I just wanted to double check again on your digital penetration in lotteries. A number there that looks very, very strong. In terms of inertia towards digital, can you just talk about general trends? Do you see an acceleration there more recently in overall inertia or trends sort of just traditionally, or just broad trends continuing or softer? I just wanted to try and get an overall understanding of how you're seeing that shift towards digital right now compared to maybe 12- 24 months ago.
Factors driving digital are obviously just a wider trend of adoption of digital in all categories out there. For us, jackpot activity is absolutely a driver of digital, and customer demographics also have a key influence on that. The younger demographic is absolutely more attracted to the digital channel, and we've got a lot of activity, some of which we've talked about, in train to leverage off that willingness that younger customers have to engage in digital. Some of the new features that we've got for going forward, one of those is what we're calling check and collect. We have an enormous number of customers, actually around 7 million, who check retail tickets through their digital, through scanning the barcode on the ticket or scanning the ticket, basically, to see if they've won. It's not a digital ticket, it's a retail ticket.
The check and collect feature is going to enable them to check their ticket like that and then have that prize paid immediately into a digital account so that it will encourage them to set up a digital account. We'll be encouraging them to play digitally and keep playing in retail as well, I guess. The older demographic, as I said, there's definitely a trend up for them taking up more digital, but playing more omnichannel as well. That's good for the retail network and also good for digital margin growth for us. As we've spoken about previously, we know those omnichannel customers are the most valuable to us. I think what we saw was continued growth, which is in line with what we've done before, and we expect that growth to continue into the future.
Thank you.
Maybe I'll just add, if you like, also that if you looked at its first half, second half from a digital growth perspective, probably the game that grew the most was Oz Lotto, in line with the strong jackpots in the second half.
Thank you. Your next question is from Sam Bradshaw from Evans & Partners. Go ahead, thank you.
Hey, good morning, Sue and Adam. I've just got a question on the new terminal rollout. Have you seen any uplift already from Queensland versus some of the other states?
Hi Sam, it's Adam here. I think it's a bit early days yet from the terminal rollout perspective just in Queensland. At this stage, no, would be the answer.
Great. Just to follow up, I think the terminal rollout says that it's just Queensland, New South Wales, and ACT at this stage. I'm just wondering if you have any plans to go nationwide at some stage.
I think maybe you might be reading the priorities for FY 2026. We've completed Queensland lotteries and we'll be doing those other states. Queensland, Keno, New South Wales, ACT, but it will be a national rollout over the course of the remaining three years of the program.
Great, thanks Adam.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Ms. van der Merwe for closing remarks. Thanks.
Thank you and thank you everyone for joining us and giving us your time today. We very much appreciate it. I would like to just wish you all well in the future since this will be my last results call. Have a great day. Thank you. Goodbye.