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Q1 2025 MGM Resorts International Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Howard Wang; Vice President, Investor Relations; MGM Resorts International

William Hornbuckle; President, Chief Executive Officer, Director; MGM Resorts International

Jonathan Halkyard; Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer; MGM Resorts International

Corey Sanders; Chief Operating Officer; MGM Resorts International

Brandt Montour; Analyst; Barclays

Carlo Santarelli; Analyst; Deutsche Bank

David Katz; Analyst; Jefferies

Shaun Kelley; Analyst; Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Stephen Grambling; Analyst; Morgan Stanley

John DeCree; Analyst; CBRE

Barry Jonas; Analyst; Truist Securities

Chad Beynon; Analyst; Macquarie Research

Presentation

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the MGM Resorts International first-quarter 2025 earnings conference call.
Joining the call from the company today are Bill Hornbuckle, Chief Executive Officer and President; Corey Sanders, Chief Operating Officer; Jonathan Halkyard, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer; Fritz, President of MGM Interactive; Kenneth Fang, Executive Director and President of MGM China Holdings; and Howard Wang, Vice President, Investor Relations.
(Operator Instructions) Please note, this conference is being recorded.
Now I would like to turn the call over to Howard Wang. Please go ahead.

Howard Wang

Thank you, Gary. Welcome to the MGM Resorts International first-quarter 2025 earnings call. This call is being broadcast live on the Internet at investors.mgmresorts.com, and we have also furnished our press release on Form 8-K to the SEC.
On this call, we will make forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of the federal secured laws. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated in these statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements is contained in today's press release and in our periodic filings with the SEC. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new information or otherwise.
During the call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures when talking about our performance. You can find the reconciliation to GAAP financial measures in our press release and investor presentation, which are available on our website. Finally, this presentation is being recorded.
I will now turn it over to Bill Hornbuckle.

William Hornbuckle

Thank you, Howard. And before we get started, on behalf of everyone at MGM, condolences go out to the family, friends, colleagues and all those who are impacted by the passing of Alexis Herman, our beloved and longtime MGM Resorts' Board Director, and the first African-American to serve as US Secretary of Labor. Alexis was an incredible woman and a tireless champion open and our culture helping us to ground every board deliberation with their compassion, her sound judgment and valued business expertise.
She was always so generous with their time proving individual career mentorship to myself and many other leaders at MGM and throughout our community. As a public servant, she will always be remembered for her hard work to secure low unemployment, safe work conditions and a global standard for child labor opening doors for individuals individual [persists and advancement] of livelihoods.
Her life's work touched so many and she truly will be great missed. We at MGM are fortunate to have a foundation built on exceptional employees and leaders, and I'm pleased to share with you today that their efforts have driven yet another strong quarter of financial results, highlighted by an impressive turnaround at BetMGM. Make no mistake, our ability to deliver outstanding experiences to our customers and strong results to our shareholders, start with my colleagues across MGM Resorts. We've maintained record level Net Promoter Scores for our Gold Plus customers once again this quarter.
Their collective hard work culminated in a notable milestone this month when our MGM Rewards program costs [50 million] members, which represents growth of over 50% since 2020. And in [the chin] that reflects sustained power of MGM's iconic brands and our powerful customer insights, which can amplify the Marriott partnership and drive omnichannel opportunities, particularly with BetMGM.
I'm confident in saying no other mature gaming company has seen the database growth as strong as we have over the same period. As we navigate the balance of the year, our business is on solid footing, led by our luxury offerings, we deliver an elevated experience to more guests than any of our competitors on the Las Vegas Strip, making us prime beneficiaries of a strong citywide events and convention calendar. Our business is also equipped with ample liquidity and a strong balance sheet and operational agility, specifically, our experienced operators and leaders have shown the ability to adjust quickly in the economic conditions, which have presented themselves throughout the company's life span of nearly four decades.
We ended this year on offense with a $200 million EBITDA enhancement plan already in motion. We now believe we fully can implement more than $150 million in 2025. We are also seeing continued growth from our existing exclusive Marriott collaboration which we still expect will account for 900,000 room nights this year, up from the 660,000 last year.
Adding to these our diversity in geography and market mix is once again proving to be a strength during these times of volatility. To set up in Las Vegas is steady with a favorable supply dynamic as current rooms under construction represent only 1.6% of the existing supply among the lowest of the top 25 MSAs. Additionally, second quarter 2025 airline capacity at Harry Reid Airport remains scheduled at record levels. Domestic flight capacity in each month from April to June is up 2% with 14 of the 25 largest metro markets increasing capacity into Las Vegas.
Our Las Vegas Strip resorts were solid despite the prior period's benefiting from the Super Bowl and the full room capacity the MGM Grand given its current room remodel program. As we approach the end of April, we continue to see a resilient operating environment with key metrics in line with what we expect in the ordinary course of business, in fact, April will be a record hotel month for our Las Vegas Strip operations.
In our regional properties, operations remained steady with only a modest decline in revenue due to some inclemental weather (inaudible) and we ended the period strong with records for the month of March in RevPAR and slot win. Also, we have once again shown the ability to generate segment adjusted EBITDA margins at or above 30%.
Switching over to China. MGM China is maintaining mid-teens share, ending the quarter at 15.7%, even with new supply ramping up in the market. We continue to be proud and we are able to debut 10 new [villas] at MGM Macau today with another 18 opening by the end of the year. At MGM Cotai, we're in process of adding 60 new suites that are targeting a first quarter 2026 opening. These are welcome new room products that will help support demand from our premium gaming customers.
As solid as our various business segments have performed the spotlight shine brightest on BetMGM this quarter. [Venture] reported an increase in net revenue from operations of [34%] for the quarter and EBITDA of $22 million representing a tremendous improvement of over $150 million from the prior year period. iGaming net revenues for operating grew 27% and online sports net revenues from operations grew 68%, each on the heels of strong engagement improvement.
We have previously discussed the focus on iGaming and a more thoughtful and profitable approach towards customer acquisition and the team has executed on it impressively for the year-over-year turnaround.
MGM Digital, our consolidated international digital business that does not include the BetMGM venture made great progress during the quarter as well. With the launch in Brazil, our first deployment of sports betting platform that we acquired from [TYPICO] last year.
In Brazil, we have seen evidence of early traction with healthy retention rates. Also having a fantastic media partner like Grupo Globo has provided flexibility in marketing, allowing us to be very deliberate on entry. We are focused on executing our marketing and throughout the second quarter as this business continues to ramp, and we're excited to launch our live [dealer] platform from the MGM brand later in May.
In Japan, we've made meaningful progress. Earlier this month, we entered into an agreement with our general contractors to proceed with construction activities as planned, and we're held an official ground opening breaking ceremony in Osaka on April 24. State side, we remain on track at our RFP in New York over the summer and continue to expect to hear back on our licenses before year's end.
Overall, MGM is well positioned for the future. We have market-leading operations in Las Vegas and the regions and the resorts have received significant investment in care over most recent years. Our digital businesses in the US and beyond are growing and turning profitable, and we have an inevitable pipeline of future project opportunities in Japan and hopefully, New York as well as a durable financial profile, including ample liquidity and a very solid balance sheet.
I'll now turn this over to Jonathan to provide further details on the quarter.