Aristocrat Leisure cashes in on NFL popularity by attracting younger male customers
It’s early days for Aristocrat’s play in the US NFL market but the company believes its newest slot machine will be a hit among a new younger group of men.
As slots giant Aristocrat Leisure expands across the US, early data shows its new NFL game is already attracting a younger, male audience, chief executive Trevor Croker has told analysts.
Installation of the new NFL slot machine game in US casinos began just over a week ago – timed to coincide with the opening day of the NFL season and leading up to the Super Bowl – and features symbols such as beer, pizza, and footballs.
“It’s bringing in a new player to the slot floor,” Mr Croker told analysts at a pre-financial year roundtable. “It’s a new younger male player to the slots business … who was already at the casino.”
The NFL game was rated the most anticipated game in the second quarter 2023 slot survey by Eilers-Fantini, according to Citigroup research.
Aristocrat has been enjoying above-market growth in North America where it has about 30 per cent market share.
Research by Custom Market Insights puts the current value of the global slots market at $US10.4bn and predicts it will more than double to $US23bn in the next decade.
For Aristocrat, the NFL game is a way it hopes to lure players who have not been interested in slots before and who stay engaged, rather than just a short blip post release, Mr Croker said.
The NFL game is a live licence and Mr Croker said it would continuously update with the season and incorporate game plays to keep it current.
The move may well work, according to Citigroup.
“NFL offers an interesting upside to our forecasts, if it can grow the market and become a hit title,” wrote Adrian Lemme in a Citi research note.
“While it is still early days, if NFL proves successful we believe the concepts outlined could be extended to other sports licences down the track.”
Aristocrat is also focused on the high-growth online gaming market. Earlier this year it announced the $1.8bn takeover of NASDAQ-listed iGaming company NeoGames, after its failed attempt to buy British software group Playtech.
That deal is yet to be approved by the various US regulators but Mr Croker said the pace of approvals was as expected. Aristocrat already has an iGaming presence in the US through its Anaxi unit. IGaming is considered a growth market in the US because it is slowly moving from being illegal to legistalated and taxable in seven US states, and counting.
As to whether the firm founded by gaming billionaire Len Ainsworth would consider a dual listing on the NASDAQ, the CEO said it was “a regular conversation with the board”.
The company is currently midway through a $1.5bn share buyback program and is still considering inorganic growth, but Mr Croker said current opportunities did not meet Aristocrat’s price expectations.
“There are still opportunities out there but some expectations are above what we think is appropriate,” Mr Croker said.
Aristocrat shares closed 0.6 per cent, or 24c, higher on Tuesday at $41.04. Its shares have risen 33.6 per cent this year.
At the company’s half-year results released in May, Aristocrat announced normalised net profit after tax of $619m for the six months ended March 31, up 16.7 per cent.
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