TAB New Zealand provides the third monthly trading update for the 2022/2023 financial year, with the results and highlights for October 2022.

The TAB operated through its online and retail channels throughout October, with no Covid-19 restrictions in retail and hospitality throughout the month. Turnover was up slightly on budget in October. Gross betting revenue (GBR) and gross betting margin (GBM) were below budget. Retail traffic continued to hold strong following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, and overall field sizes across all three codes were up on the year-to-date average, but other factors – including race abandonments, intense competitive pressure from unregulated online offshore operators and lower average bet size in key customer segments as economic conditions tighten – contributed to a mixed result.

Because of the above factors and the continued economic challenges that are forecast to continue for some time, the TAB NZ Board has signalled to the racing codes that it will reduce distributions by nine percent in the 2022/23 financial year (year ended 31 July 2023). Factoring in other distributions derived through New Zealand racing, overall distributions will be around $160m for this financial year.