One of the biggest gambling companies in Australia – Tabcorp – has decided to take measures to offset the negative impact that the shutdown of brick-and-mortar licensed betting shops and TAB agencies and the cancellation and postponement of major sports events are having on its performance.
Even though some new sports betting options, such as the Belarusian Premier League, have emerged in the light of coronavirus crisis, they have not been able to compensate for the revenue that would have been generated by the company as a result of its customers’ betting on some of the most popular sports competitions in Australia and across the world.
Because of that, Tabcorp has decided to temporarily furlough over 700 workers to June 30th, 2020, who are employed in its services that are no longer operational due to the closures related to the coronavirus outbreak. A further 160 technology contractors, who represent a 40% reduction, have also been dismissed. Fees that are owed in April 2020 by venues operating under TAB, Keno, Sky Racing and MAX contracts have been suspended and are set to be reviewed on a monthly basis in the light of the Covid-19 situation.
The gambling group has projected that its business-as-usual expenditure for the ongoing first half would suffer about a 25% decline at approximately AU$120 million. The banking facilities of Tabcorp has been expanded through an additional short term facility worth AU$226 million that is payable in the middle of the following year.
Tabcorp Aimed at Remaining Proactive to Deal with Difficulties Related to Covid-19 Crisis
Apart from the above-mentioned measures to fight the negative effects on the company’s performance due to the coronavirus shutdown, David Attenborough, who is the company’s chief executive officer and managing director, has also taken a 20% fixed remuneration pay reduction until the end of the current financial year.
Mr Attenborough has explained that the time has been challenging to businesses, partners, individuals and the community as a whole. He further noted that the company has been working proactively and collaborated with all its stakeholders so that they could deal with the difficulties during the Covid-19 shutdown and emerge from the crisis as strong as possible.
Apart from all that, the company has slashed its chairman and non-executive director fees by 10%. The measure was taken only several months after another 10% reduction of the above-mentioned fees were made in September 2019.
Despite its retail gambling services have been affected by the cancellation and postponement of sports events across the world, Tabcorp has highlighted the fact that its Lotteries and Keno, and Betting and Media digital channels continue to operate as they used to. In addition, its lotteries retail network of convenience stores, newsagents and other brick-and-mortar outlets has also remained operational so far.
For the time being, greyhound, thoroughbred and harness races on the territory of Australia, excluding Tasmania, are still being conducted in line with the state government’s policies regarding public health restrictions.
- Author
Olivia Cole
