Australians banking on $80m Powerball draw with one in three buying tickets

Retail and online ticket sales for Powerball are tracking in line with the usual patterns of any lottery of this magnitude.

If one person takes home the entire $80m prize they’ll become Australia’s third-largest individual lottery winner.

One in three Australians are still expected to buy a ticket in Thursday night’s $80m Powerball draw, with sales tracking in line with Tabcorp management’s usual expectations.

The coronavirus has failed to put a dampener on ticket sales for the popular lottery, with the vast majority retail outlets remaining open across the country and ticket sales also still taking place at newsagents, convenience stores, supermarkets and petrol stations.

Tabcorp told The Australian on Wednesday that both retail and online ticket sales for Powerball were tracking in line with the usual patterns of any lottery of this magnitude. The jackpot has been climbing for the past six weeks and is only the sixth time in Powerball’s 24-year history that an $80m jackpot has been offered.

“If one person takes home the entire $80m prize tomorrow night, they’ll become Australia’s third-largest individual lottery winner ever,” Tabcorp said. The biggest individual winner took home about $107m in January last year.

The company’s retail network has been given strict instructions to enforce the federal government’s social distancing requirements to protect their staff and customers.

Powerball will provide a rare bright spot for Tabcorp, which is being hit by a fall in wagering as a result of the government decision to close pubs and clubs and outlets at racing venues, which account for about 28 per cent of the company’s group revenue. Another 4 per cent of revenue is derived from sports betting, which will also be hit with the shutdown of sports leagues in Australia and around the world.

Some racing, including thoroughbred horse racing, is still going ahead for now, though harness racing in Victoria and NSW will not after a NSW official who worked at a meet last week tested positive to COVID-19. Racing in Victoria was also suspended on Wednesday afternoon.

“Tabcorp is seeking to partially mitigate the impact of these changes by reducing operating and capital expenditure where it reasonably can, encouraging retail customers to use digital alternatives and actively promoting remaining available products,” it told the market this year.

But global ratings agency Standard & Poors moved on Wednesday to revise Tabcorp’s outlook to “negative” and reaffirmed its “BBB-” debt rating.

“The negative outlook reflects our view that COVID-19-related restrictions are likely to significantly affect Tabcorp’s retail segment and wagering revenue, which, if protracted, could cause Tabcorp’s leverage to move outside our tolerances for the ‘BBB-’ rating,” the ratings agency said in a statement.

“The extent and duration of the closures to TAB agencies, as well as hotels and clubs that offer Tabcorp’s wagering and media, Keno, and gaming services products, remain highly uncertain.”

In a note to clients, Morgan Stanley cut its full-year profit forecasts for Tabcorp. It said revenue in the company’s wagering and media division should fall 14 per cent this year, while lotteries and keno sales would rise only 1 per cent compared to a previous forecast of 9 per cent. “We still expect strong [profit] margin growth as we assume more sales move online,” Morgan Stanley said.

Tabcorp chairman Paula Dwyer announced to the market late on Friday that she had sold 120,834 shares and then purchased 45,835 shares via separate family trusts. She said she now held 125,000 shares and intended to buy more in the coming months.

Tabcorp shares were down 0.4 per cent on Wednesday to $2.33. They have fallen about 48 per cent since January 1.