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Text: There are certain risks and uncertainties, including those disclosed in our filings with the SEC that may impact our results.
During our call today, we'll make reference to non-GAAP financial measures.
Our first quarter results reflect an exceptional performance by our company and our entire team as the momentum that began in the third quarter of last year continued throughout our business.
On a companywide basis, we achieved an all-time EBITDAR record of $292.6 million.
While this is up considerably from the prior year, we also exceeded our first quarter 2019 performance by more than 30% and surpassed our previous record by over 20%.
Companywide margins for the quarter were 38.8%.
This is nearly 1,200 basis points better than the first quarter of 2019 and 220 basis points higher than the previous record we set in the third quarter of 2020.
We also achieved new EBITDAR records in each of our two largest operating segments.
In the Las Vegas Locals segment EBITDAR exceeded our previous record by 11% and was up 22% over 2019.
And when excluding The Orleans, which is heavily reliant on destination business, our same-store locals EBITDAR was up 46% from 2019 levels.
Operating margins in our Las Vegas Locals segment were nearly 50% for the quarter, 360 basis points higher than the record we set just two quarters ago.
In our Midwest and South region, EBITDAR grew nearly 40% over 2019 beating the previous record by almost 20%.
Segment margins were nearly 40% this quarter and overall gaming revenues were up more than 2% from 2019 levels.
Most important, this operating segment -- this operating strength was broad-based as 15 of our 17 properties in this segment grew EBITDAR at a double-digit pace over their 2019 performance.
Throughout the quarter, strengthening consumer confidence, limited entertainment options and our disciplined operating strategy, all contributed to produce record results across our portfolio.
Starting in January and February, business returned to the levels we saw in the third quarter.
But it was March where we really benefited from improving trends.
From February to March, daily rated play increased over 18% across all age and worth segments and was up nearly 25% in our 65 and up segment.
As vaccinations continue to roll out, customers are clearly growing more comfortable with resuming their pre-pandemic activities including regular visits to our properties.
We also experienced an impressive increase in unrated play, which grew more than 33% on a comparable basis from February to March, a reflection of a strengthening consumer confidence across the country.
This strong unrated play is providing us the opportunity to grow our database as we leverage our enhanced tools and capabilities to identify high-value unrated players on our gaming floors and then enroll them into our B Connected loyalty program.
In the first quarter, new player sign-ups rose 35% over the fourth quarter.
But beyond the sheer increase in quantity, it is the quality of these guests that is far more impressive.
On an overall basis, the worth of our first quarter sign-ups was over 50% higher than the first quarter of 2019.
Across the business, the strong trends of March are continuing into April.
Rated guest counts are running well ahead of the third and fourth quarters of 2020 and unrated play remains at very high levels.
While we are very encouraged by April's business trends as other entertainment options become increasingly available, we do expect unrated play levels will normalize.
But even as unrated play normalizes, we are confident we can keep delivering strong performances as we pursue additional growth opportunities within our growing rated customer base.
One of these opportunities is the 65-and-over segment.
While we have seen strong growth from this demographic in the last several months, many are still on the sidelines.
And as our country continues to make progress against the pandemic, we are confident that more of these guests will return to our properties as the year progresses.
We also see opportunities to grow our destination business.
While business from local guest segments remain strong, guest counts from destination travelers remain well below pre-pandemic levels.
The softness has been particularly noteworthy at The Orleans, which draws a significant amount of business from destination travelers.
This has also impacted our downtown Las Vegas segment, where visitation from our core Hawaiian customers has been severely restrained by travel restrictions.
As COVID vaccinations continue to roll out and restrictions lift, we expect visitation among our rated destination customers to improve.
We also expect to see improvements in midweek business as restrictions on conventions and meetings are eased and capacity limits are increased.
Over the last several weeks, we've started to see the first indications that this destination business is returning.
Hotel reservations have increased to their highest level in more than a year.
And our booking window is rapidly improving.
At the same time, we are experiencing growing demand for non-gaming amenities.
We are encouraged by the opportunity for growth on the non-gaming side of the business and we'll take a thoughtful and disciplined approach in reintroducing these amenities.
We remain committed to our disciplined operating strategy that has delivered outstanding results over the last several quarters.
On top of organic growth opportunities within our portfolio, we continue to make progress with our strategic growth initiatives.
For example, our interactive gaming presence and offerings continue to expand.
After introducing Stardust as our social casino brand last year, we have now entered the world of real money online gaming launching our first Stardust online casinos in Pennsylvania and New Jersey last week.
We're also excited by the performance and the ongoing potential of our partnership with FanDuel Group.
Together, we have established market-leading sports betting products in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Mississippi with significant future opportunities yet to come in states like Ohio, Louisiana, Missouri and Kansas.
And with our recently announced partnership with the NFL, FanDuel's brand will be significantly enhanced through its association as one of the League's official sports wagering partners for this coming football season.
FanDuel will have rights to include endgame and postgame highlights directly into its Sportsbook app further separating our partner from the competition in a crowded sports betting landscape.
We are also making good progress on the Wilton Rancheria Tribes Resort near Sacramento, California.
Construction is now under way on the Sky River Casino and the project is set to go vertical next month.
I had the pleasure of joining the Tribal council, community leaders and hundreds of tribal members for groundbreaking in early March.
This was a true celebration by the entire Wilton community as they saw their vision of self-sufficiency finally come to life.
We are proud to call the Wilton tribe our friends and are honored to be their partners in this project.
We look forward to joining them and opening the doors with Sky River Casino in the second half of 2022.
Before concluding, I wanted to take a note -- to take note of our company's ongoing progress on our corporate responsibility initiatives.
Last week, we were honored to be recognized as the highest rating gaming company in Forbes Magazine's listing of America's Best Employers for diversity.
We are a company that takes pride in promoting a welcoming culture for all team members.
Being recognized by Forbes as a leader in workplace diversity is a great honor and reflects our ongoing efforts to create and support an environment where team members feel valued and appreciated.
We also released our company's first comprehensive environmental, social and governance report last week.
While our company has been committed to the principles of ESG for decades, this report is the first time we have compiled this information into a single document.
Within this report, you will see detailed data on the progress we are making to conserve natural resources, reduce our carbon footprint, enhance the lives of our team members, build strong communities and promote good corporate governance.
We are pleased with our performance against key ESG benchmarks to-date and look forward to sharing our continued progress with you in the future.
In conclusion, this was truly an outstanding quarter for our company.
Our business model is allowing us to make the most of an improving environment by delivering exceptional EBITDAR growth and margin improvement throughout the portfolio.
Throughout the country, our property leaders are successfully maintaining higher margins and a disciplined operating philosophy as restrictions lift and visitation grows, and we continue to make significant progress on our strategic initiatives.
Throughout all of this, our team members have kept their commitment to delivering personal and memorable service to our guests.
That service is what makes Boyd Gaming stand out from the competition, and it will continue to draw customers back to our properties as the pandemic recovery continues.
Together we are achieving new heights as a company and it is an honor to be part of such an incredible team.
Before I provide comments on the quarter, I want to point out that we have included our 2019 results and the financial tables accompanying today's release.
We believe that 2019 is a more relevant comparison period to this year's results since our entire property portfolio was closed during the second half of March of last year.
As Keith noted, this was an incredible quarter for our company.
As you have seen from our results in the third and fourth quarter of last year, our operating strategy delivers on growing EBITDAR with enhanced margins.
And this was also the case in January and February.
January and February were very good months, and resembled third quarter of last year in terms of business levels and margins.
Compared to 2019, revenues were down nearly 11% during the February year-to-date period, while companywide EBITDAR after corporate expense rose 34% and margins improved nearly 1,200 basis points.
The month of March was even stronger.
March benefited from our more efficient operating model, but was enhanced by stronger revenues particularly from higher-margin unrated play.
In March revenues were down just 6% from 2019 levels, while companywide EBITDAR margins after corporate expense approached 44%.
During the first quarter, guest counts and spend both increased from the levels we saw in the third and fourth quarter of last year.
We saw improvements across all age and worth segments including the 65-and-over age segments.
In terms of gaming revenues, our Midwest and South segment rose more than 2% from 2019.
While on the Las Vegas Locals segment, gaming revenues were up approximately 4% from 2019.
In addition, we are experiencing increased demand for non-gaming amenities and growing demand for hotel capacity from both rated and unrated customers.
Looking forward, we believe there is continued opportunity to grow our business among upper age segments of our database that have yet to fully return, as well as destination business.
And we have the opportunity to build relationships with higher worth customers we have added to our database during the last several quarters.
Our enhanced tools and capabilities combined with a more disciplined operating philosophy have allowed us to execute our business with much greater efficiency.
This philosophy will continue to be our focus, as customer demand continues to return and we successfully -- selectively restore additional amenities.
We believe that our operating strategy is sustainable, and we are confident that we can maintain a significantly more efficient business model over the long run.
Touching on a few additional points from the quarter.
We generated over $200 million in cash during the quarter, resulting in approximately $730 million of cash on the balance sheet at quarter end.
And we currently have no borrowings outstanding under our $1 billion revolving credit facility.
As we continue to grow out of this pandemic, we believe, it is most prudent to maintain our financial flexibility with respect to our cash balances and our free cash flow.
In terms of our online business, we continue to be excited by the opportunity represented by sports and iGaming.
As we previously indicated we expect to generate over $20 million in EBITDAR from online this year.
And we are on track to achieve that result.
We believe our strategic partnership and equity stake in FanDuel is the right approach, generating positive cash flow in a highly promotional capital-intensive and competitive landscape.
And as more states legalize sports betting and FanDuel leads the way as one of the long-term winners in this space, our 5% equity stake will only continue to grow in value for our shareholders.
We are also continuing to expand our online gaming presence under the Stardust brand that leverages our customer database and geographic distribution.
We just launched the Stardust brand in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
And we continue to explore opportunities to expand and grow our capabilities and presence online, particularly in the iGaming space.
So in summary, this was a great quarter.
January and February were good.
March was exceptional and that strength is continuing into April.
Going forward, we will stay firmly committed to our operating strategy, driving increased EBITDAR, as a result of a continued operating discipline and a tight focus on the right customer.
And finally, our strategic partnership with FanDuel and our online iGaming business will be growing components of our business.
Matt that concludes our remarks and we're now ready to take any questions.

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boyd gaming - as economic conditions improve, vaccinations roll out, seeing increased visitation, growing spend-per-visit across every customer segment.

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