Earnings Call
Bally's Corp (BALY)
Earnings Call Transcript - BALY Q4 FY2021
Operator
Call sites on hold. We appreciate your patience. Please continue to stand by. Call sites on hold. We appreciate your patience. Please continue to stand by. Call sites on hold. We appreciate your patience. Please continue to stand by. If you need any audio assistance during your call today, please press star zero. And thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Bollies Corporation 4th Quarter 2021 Year-End Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer period. In order to ask a question during the session, please press the star key, followed by the number one on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference call is being recorded. If you should require further assistance, please press star zero. I'd now like to turn the call over to Bobby LeWon, Senior Vice President of Binance and Investor Relations at Bollies. Please go ahead, sir.
Bobby Lavan, Head of Investor Relations
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call. The earnings release and presentation that accompany this call are available in the investor relations section of our website. With me on today's call are Lee Fenton, Chief Executive Officer, George Papenier, President Retail, Robeson Reed, President Interactive, and Steve Kapp, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, we'd like to remind everyone that comments made by management today will contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include plans, expectations, estimates, and projections that involve significant risks and uncertainties. These risks are discussed in the company's earnings release and SEC filers. Actual results may differ materially from the results discussed in these forward-looking In addition, during today's call, management will report certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP financial measures are included in the schedules contained in our earnings release and presentation. We do not provide reconciliation of forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures due to our inability to project special charges within certain expenses. Today's call is also being broadcast live on our investor relations site and will be available for replay shortly after the completion of this call. Now let me hand it over to Lee.
Lee Fenton, CEO
Thank you, Bobby, and hello, everyone. With our first full quarter together as an enlarged ballad, I'm extremely excited about the potential across our business for 2022 and beyond. We closed Gainsys, the largest of our acquisitions to date, on October 1 of last year, and we've made significant progress on integration to this point. Let me give you just a few highlights. We prepared and got approved a consolidated group budget based on a clear set of strategic goals for 2022. In the next week, we will unveil our purpose and values to our global employee base, which will be at the heart of how we grow our business over the coming years. We have started to see the first fruits of our omni-channel vision with the launch of Bally iCasino in New Jersey. Our data project, which will be a key enabler to allow us to further optimize our business performance, is well underway. way. We are on track with our rollout of Ballybet 2.0. We continue to build top-of-funnel awareness, grow our customer data set, and see increasing engagement on our free-to-play products. We have rationalized the GameSys public co-spend to the tune of approximately $5 million. We launched the Bally's Foundation in the UK to improve global employee buy-in and global awareness, and we will launch the same in the U.S. in the next few months. And as we continue to drill down into the business, we are finding best practices among the teams, which will drive efficiencies for us in the longer term. Bringing together a wider array of assets with geographically dispersed teams and a number of business lines is not without complexity. So I'd like to give my heartfelt thanks to all of the Bally's team for the passion with which they have approached all of the integration work streams. As we've stated before, we are a unique combination with equal revenues coming from U.S. retail casinos and a global digital business.
Steve Capp, CFO
We believe in customer centricity driven by great service, great data and great analytics.
Lee Fenton, CEO
We do not need to be first to market with an inferior product. Customers will always have choices, and your first impression is more important than timing of launch. We will launch when the product is right, and we're willing to miss short-term gain to build long-term trust and value with our customers. With the continued rational spending on sports betting, we have concentrated our North American Interactive focus on building a sports betting product that is U.S.-centric and easy to use for the mass market. We will begin to market our 2.0 product in Arizona and New York in the first half of 2021. We've also accelerated our efforts to go live in Ontario with regulated iGaming, and we expect to launch there in the summer. And we'll add additional state launches through the second half of the year. Bally iCasino launched in New Jersey in December, and I'm very pleased with the early results. As you know, one of the core plans for the rationale in bringing together Bally's and GameSys was to enable a lower cost of acquisition into digital products. We've seen very positive early momentum through our cross-sell campaign from the AC database into iCasino. with sign-ups above our expectations across the board that's actually delivering double-digit database conversion in the higher value segment. The cross-sale campaign has enabled our blended CPA to come in under $200 and has brought in customers with predicted LTVs circa 2x compared to what we've seen on our Virgin iCasino brand in the same state. We plan to increase our cross-sale campaigns further in Q1 2022. Naturally, we will also evolve this proposition as we go forward, and that was illustrated with the addition of live casino to the product on Monday of this week. We continue to focus on a differentiated omni-channel strategy where we drive awareness of the Bally's brand using free-to-pay product products to optimize customer acquisition providing cost structural advantages for our interactive business a great example of this is the 100 million March madness bracket challenge that we will launch on the 7th of March leveraging our properties our extensive partnership with Sinclair and our free-to-play expertise to deliver an extremely cost-effective marketing campaign. As we introduced in the third quarter, we're going to report our business with three primary segments, casinos and resorts, international interactive, and North America interactive. So turning to casinos and resorts, we have a large portfolio of regional gaming assets that generate significant and sustainable cash flow. 2021 was a record revenue EBITDA and free cash flow year for 2021 pro forma for acquisitions completed in the year excluding Atlantic City revenues were 983 million and EBITDA was 395 million showing a 40% EBITDA margin fourth quarter gave us EBITDA of 83 million on revenues of 278 million. Excluding AC, EBITDA of 88 million on revenues of 247, showing a 36% EBITDA margin. In the seasonally lower fourth quarter, we were negatively impacted by COVID and the previously mentioned smoking ban in Shreveport. In addition, in response to market conditions, we brought back some amenities in November, December that caused a little offside with COVID and the impact of poor weather. We've pulled back those amenities in January and the past few weeks have seen the return of strong margins. 2021 pro forma, as if all acquisitions closed at the beginning of the year, we would have had revenue of approximately 1.15 billion. Going into 2022, we expect revenues to be flat or slightly up from that level. EBITDA in the range of 385 to 395 million we expect that Atlantic City will contribute 150 million of revenues and no EBITDA excluding AC we expect EBITDA margins to be in the 38 to 39 percent range this includes a January that has five million of headwinds due to COVID and particularly poor weather. Volumes have bounced back in line with expectations in February. Inflationary pressures, particularly on the wage side, are the main headwinds into 2022. But we expect the market to be rational and continue to expect that we will maintain most of the margin gains over 2019. FTE count at the casinos at the end of Q4 21 was down down 26% over Q4 19 and we expect it to hold at that level through 22 we have 180 million of capital expenditures in the properties in 22 with the key highlights being Atlantic City where we'll add 750 new hotel rooms and several new amenities that will be in service by Memorial Day at Lincoln where we'll build out 50,000 square feet and have a significantly enhanced Asian offering in kansas city the investment will extend into 2023 but provide significant upside to an already successful story with the addition of 40 000 square feet of land-based facility housing non-gaming amenities in addition we will finalize the full ballets rebranding of our properties by the second quarter moving to international interactive which is primarily operations in the UK and Asia. 2021, the record for revenue, EBITDA, and pre-cash flow. In terms of revenue for the full year, on a constant currency basis, UK was plus 10% year-on-year and Asia was plus 18%. Tough comps in Q4 meant on a constant currency basis, UK was down 5% and Asia up eight percent. Handling the UK was only up one percent but a more than four percent move down in house edge led to a result slightly below expectations. For January our house edge came back to normal levels. Q4 average monthly active users were down three percent year-on-year while deposits ticked up four percent. We continue to believe that the average bet size, customer profile responsible gaming standards and a lack of dependence on VIP business puts us in a favorable position as the UK progressives of the gambling app review we have always been and will continue to be the leader of best practices in the market illustrated by our recent gam care accreditation for their safer gambling standard at level 3 which is the highest level any company he can achieve. In Asia, in the fourth quarter, revenue was plus 8%, while total handle was plus 14, and deposits were up by 15%. Our new Ugardo brand continues to take share, and during Q4, we moved to 24-7 customer care for the market. Slots is now our largest product segment, and even when you combine live and RNG casino, and we believe this demonstrates wider adoption of online gaming in the market we're a first mover out there and can say that the data is pointing us to tremendous opportunities in both short and long term in 2021 34 percent of ngr was from customers acquired over two years ago and this is up from 22 percent in 2019 and 2020 Having a strong and growing long-term customer base allows us to be more competitive and continue to invest while maintaining strong growth and cash flow. In the UK for 2022, we expect loads of mid-single-digit growth. For H1, we have some tough COVID comps. We expect the year-on-year decline in Q4 to be the low point. We expect Asia to deliver double-digit growth. Spain, rest of Europe, and rest of the world will have revenues of 50 to 60 million compared to 68 million in 2021 due to the closure of non-core markets. We expect a total revenue of approximately $1.15 billion, assuming a GBP-USD rate of 1.35. Segment EBITDA margins should stay at our long-term guidance of 28 to 29 percent. We will spend approximately $30 million on capital expenditures, consistent with a historic spend on platform development. Lastly, North America Interactive, which comprises our growing B2C operations and supported B2B operations. The business continues to grow quarter on quarter, $19 million revenue in the quarter compared to $11 million in Q3. EBITDA losses of $8 million in the quarter, which is within the range that we expected, and compares to approximately $5 million of losses in the third quarter. Valley Eye Casino launched in December, and we have good momentum through January and into February. Brand awareness is strong and improving through the visibility given across Valley Sports. For North American Interactive, we project 2022 to have $125 million of revenue and a negative 60 million of EBITDA and 30 million of capital expenditures the capital expenditures are primarily software development costs required for our state-by-state launches our corporate segment is projected to be 50 million and our rent which does not include any rent associated with Tropicana Las Vegas is 46 million we will announce additional details on Tropicana in the coming months but we continue to be excited about the opportunity in Vegas and we are in advanced discussions with potential development partners. We expect to be in the position to communicate our chosen partners and plans by the half-year ahead of completion in early Q3. Putting all of this together it gives us a headline net revenue of 2.4 to 2.5 billion dollars and adjusted EBITDA of 560 to 580. And that includes 60 million of EBITDA losses and North America Interactive. Capital expenditures include 120 million of growth capital at the properties, 60 million of maintenance plus 60 million at Interactive, split between North America and international and 30 million at one time capex related to integration
George Papanier, Other
prior to turning to Steve I want to update you on our ESG efforts GameSys
Lee Fenton, CEO
was a leader in ESG in the UK and Ballets will be a leader in the US Ballets have now established an official ESG committee of the board the long-standing GameSys foundation in the UK has been renamed the Ballets Foundation and will spend more than £2.5 million this year on efforts in the UK. We are also setting up a foundation in the US to invest in the communities that we serve. From an ESG reporting perspective, SASB reporting will go live in Q1 22 and the UN Social Development Goals Reporting Framework will be set in the second quarter. In the coming months, we will have a dedicated ESG section on our website, but most importantly, we're increasing our responsible gaming awareness programs across our entire company. Giving back to the community, maintaining a healthy relationship with our customers has always been a priority of our
Steve Capp, CFO
culture. Now, let me hand it over to Steve. Lee, thank you. Mostly housekeeping from me. For the quarter, we reported net revenues of $548 million. This reflects a full quarter of gains revenues, of course, under our new segment reporting structure. Additionally, we filed an 8K this morning that has a recast for the past seven quarters. That should help satisfy your modeling requirements. For the quarter, adjusted EBITDA was $119.1 million. This includes a $5.7 million loss at Bally's A.C. that we will continue to call out as we work through the seasonal loss profile at that property. Also in the quarter, we repurchased $87 million worth of common shares at an average price of just under $40. Total share count, which assumes full conversion of Sinclair warrants and options and other contingent shares, is $66.5 million, and the schedule for this is included in our 10K materials. Total debt outstanding at the end of the quarter was $3.53 billion, and cash on balance sheet was just over $200 million. A few modeling assumptions, depreciation and amortization for $22 million will be approximately $400 million, which includes $265 million of purchase price amortization from the GAMESIS transaction. Cash taxes will be approximately $30 million, primarily international and state taxes. We estimate our GAAP effective tax rate to be 20% for 2022. Stock compensation will be approximately $30 million. As Lee discussed, we will have $180 million of property-related CapEx with Bally's AC front and loaded. The $60 million of interactive CapEx is spread evenly throughout the year. the $30 million of corporate CapEx will be front-end loaded as well. And so with that operator, we are prepared to take questions.
Operator
And we end at this time. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your touchdown phone. You may withdraw your question at any time by pressing the count P. Once again, that is star and 1. And we will take our first question from Lance Vizana with Cohen. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Lance Vizana, Analyst — Cohen & Co.
Thanks, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I have three if I can. The first is the status of new UK gaming regulations. Maybe we'll just start there. If you could comment on that, please.
Lee Fenton, CEO
Well, thank you, Lance. Well, unfortunately, due to the pressures, really, on government time, the schedule for the white paper looks to have shifted out a little again. Not pleased about that, but we are where we are. As I mentioned in the remarks, You know, we've got a very mass market base and a relatively low spend per customer compared to others in the market. So we think we're well positioned for potential changes that might come through the review. But, you know, it's worth remembering that, you know, whenever we've faced any prior regulatory change in the UK, you know, over the past 20 years, even when it's had a short term impact on us over the midterm, one to two years, we've always been net gainers. So I continue to believe that, you know, the further change to the regulatory landscape in the UK through the review, and of course, we don't know exactly what it will be yet, will most likely to consolidate share in the larger players and see smaller players exit the market. Indeed, we actually saw someone exit the market earlier this week and hand back their license in the UK. So, you know, we feel disappointed that the timeline keeps shifting out, but we're expecting to see a white paper in May. Typically, then, there would be kind of 90 days consultation around that white paper. And then it will depend whether it needs an act of parliament to enact anything in that white paper as to when it could have an impact on the market. If it doesn't need an act, it could be in by Q4 or Q1 of 23. If it needs an act, it's probably mid to second half of 2023.
Lance Vizana, Analyst — Cohen & Co.
Okay, thank you for that. I guess the next question would have to do with New York and how you are thinking about your marketing in approaching that market.
Lee Fenton, CEO
So we won't think about our marketing in New York much differently, other than obviously with an eye on the margin because of the tax rate, than we will elsewhere. Mentioned database cross-sell. Even though we haven't got a property in New York today, we do actually have a fairer database of New York players and that's because actually AC database is as large with players based in with New York addresses than it is with players with New Jersey addresses so we also have a large chunk of Pennsylvania players in that database as well so that's going to be our first point of call right and we'll be going there and we'll be looking to leverage our digital expertise in terms of marketing but we'll be approaching it you know cautiously and I don't think you'll see the same kind of tactics from ballets that you've seen with other players with very very
Lance Vizana, Analyst — Cohen & Co.
significant spend above the line okay and lastly for me before I jump back in the queue is could you just talk about how the integration of the technology is going and you know obviously the game says technology is is key but but also some of the some of the deals that were put together before you arrived me you know that works etc you know how is all of that being integrated and how would you describe where we are in the process of getting everything to really gel
Lee Fenton, CEO
thanks thank you it's been there's been some Herculean efforts I would describe from the technology teams over the last four months and I think that they've done an amazing job in starting to do all of that plumbing it's not an easy task right when you when you bring technologies together and we've we've already got working now the Pam from gamesys all of the data flowing and the data architecture rollout and the sports engine from bet works now actually now rebranded to evolve as part of our single platform all of that plumbing is happening and we now can take bets end to end so whereas four weeks ago we didn't have absolute surety on that that is all now up and working so I think the teams have done an amazing job in terms of pulling that together you know our IT is another area where we want to progress and we'll be very focused on making sure that all of the interactive assets wasn't just bet.works that you mentioned but all of the other interactive businesses that were acquired pre-game sys all get onto the same common working platforms as well which is incredibly important for us in joining the dots and just communicating more effectively but I guess the short answer is very pleased with how the technology has started to come together. It's been a ton of work from everybody, and that's emboldened us to say that, you know, we talked about launching in H1. We know we're definitely launching in H1, and we know we're definitely launching in Arizona and New York in H1.
George Papanier, Other
Thanks very much for your help.
Lee Fenton, CEO
Thank you. Thanks.
Operator
And we'll take our next question from Riccardo Gingello with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Riccardo Gingello, Analyst — Deutsche Bank
Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. First, to begin, I was wondering if you guys could comment on what maximum leverage level do you guys feel that, you know, these set of assets can withstand on, you know, a consolidated basis and on a restricted group basis? So, any comment on that, you know, maximum leverage that you will feel comfortable, you know, having at this, you know, with this portfolio and do that allow everybody to sleep comfortably at, you know, at night would be very helpful.
George Papanier, Other
Yeah, so we're, I think it was Ricardo, was it Ricardo?
Lee Fenton, CEO
Hi, Ricardo, thanks for the question. We're comfortable with where we are, of course. Of course, the main way that we'd like to bring leverage down is to drive our profits and drive our profit lines, but we're definitely comfortable with where we are. I don't know, Steve, have you got any further comment on that?
Steve Capp, CFO
Ricardo, hi. Yeah, just a little bit. As we mentioned when we marketed, well, frankly, the equity and the bonds last year, This is a, we think, a healthy place for this growing company to be where we are now, kind of low fives, if you will, cash flow leverage. We do intend to delever over time. The CapEx profile that Lee mentioned in his dialogue is less than half of our consolidated EBITDA. And obviously, we have the ability to manage that along the way as appropriate visa fee leverage. So, you know, it's never a static situation. It's quite fluid over time. But we are mindful of leverage, and we intend to work it down over time. By the way, you know, it's a two-part equation. There's debt and then the cash flow side. As North American Interactive ramps into 2023, that leverage will be impacted favorably, as well as our recovery, we think, from Omicron setbacks in 2021. So that's all I have, Lee. Perfect.
Riccardo Gingello, Analyst — Deutsche Bank
If I could squeeze one in on the interactive front, it seems like your expectation for the burn is going down from 80 million to 60 million. Is this related to timing on launches getting into 2023? Or is it more related to you guys being more conscious in some of your assumptions, particularly now that some of your peers might be recurring to lower media spend?
Lee Fenton, CEO
I'll tell you a little bit of both. You know, yes, it's partly timing and partly us just being cautious in terms of where we want to go on the build out. And partly indicated a little bit by, you know, the positive cross-sell news that we've had from Bally Eye Casino in New Jersey. That's kind of, you know, the good news. It's early days there, but, you know, we're comfortable with the guide to 60 mil.
David Katz, Analyst — Jefferies
That's all I have. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2
Thanks, Ricardo.
Operator
We'll take our next question from Dan Palsizer with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Dan Palsizer, Analyst — Wells Fargo
Hey, good morning, guys, and thanks for taking my questions. So I guess first on some of your real estate that you own at your casinos, can you just walk us through, are there any property-specific nuances that would limit flexibility for sale lease specs and I asked that thing about Rhode Island where I know you just renegotiated something this past summer that that gave you more flexibility so are there any other properties that are encumbered and maybe I guess can you talk about what is there anything special about Rhode Island that would limit flexibility and George can you
George Papanier, Other
pick that one up sure thanks hey Dan yeah Tahoe is our Tahoe properties currently under a lease arrangement other than that you know we have the ability to monetize any of these any of the other assets as far as as road and obviously that will be depending on our kind of strategic our strategic plan going forward so in Rhode Island you know there's really nothing especially as part of the previous legislation that was passed for IGT that that prohibits us from from monetizing any of those properties through and sell these back
Dan Palsizer, Analyst — Wells Fargo
got it then just switching to North America interactive your chairman recently spoke about some challenges that that are kind of well known out in the market I mean how do you view the opportunity to gain shares is something you're going to chip away at over time or are you gonna make you know a big splash with the large media campaign and you know does this strategy kind of coincide with the reduction from the 80 million burn to 60 million no there was
Lee Fenton, CEO
never a big brash media campaign where we were going to plow tens and tens of millions into that and it is something where we will chip away over time and we will you know leverage the assets that we have we think we have some phenomenal asset and strategically made the right choices in terms of trying to create a differentiated customer funnel. You know, we have a long-term deal with Sinclair, which one, gives us legitimacy in sports, and two, I think, makes the Bally brand very evident, and we think we can leverage that a lot further. And we've got, you know, significant free-to-play capability, which we believe helps massage that funnel. So I don't know if I like the phrase chip away over time, but gain steadily, incrementally, and sustainably over time is probably where I would place us rather than the big all-out media campaigns.
Dan Palsizer, Analyst — Wells Fargo
All right, that's fair. And just if I could squeeze in one more quickly. The special committee, is there any expectation for when investors can expect an update, you know, on how things are kind of progressing there?
Lee Fenton, CEO
Dan, I can't say any more than, you know, beyond what's already been released, right? We've formed the special committee of the board. They'll be considering the proposals. I think it was announced the other day that they've appointed advisors now. So those advisors need to do their work and consult back with the special committee. be, but there's no set timing that I know of or can give you now.
Dan Palsizer, Analyst — Wells Fargo
Understood. Thanks so much.
Lee Fenton, CEO
Thank you.
Operator
We'll take our next question from Jeff Stantile with default. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Jeffrey Stantial, Analyst — Stifel
Thanks for taking our questions. It's great to hear from you all again. Apologies if I missed this, but I wanted to talk to the North America losses on the online front a bit more. As it stands with your current rolled out plan, do you have a sense yet? when you might see the peak from a quarterly EBITDA loss perspective? And how are you thinking about the timing to inflect EBITDA positive, all things considered?
Lee Fenton, CEO
So in terms of guidance, we've said probably $60 million in 2022. We would expect that to probably repeat in 2023 as we roll out into further states. And in terms of getting to profitability, I mean, obviously, we're early into this. So that has some challenges and could change along the way.
George Papanier, Other
But we would expect to get to profitability at some point in 2024.
Jeffrey Stantial, Analyst — Stifel
Okay, great, Leo. That's very helpful. And then, you know, for my follow-up, I wanted to touch on the prospects, you know, kind of to follow on with Dan's questions on more real estate monetization here. You know, we've seen some favorable cap rate comps out there more recently. And there's comments from your chairman suggesting there's potentially some value not being realized in your portfolio on the real estate front by the public markets. You know, all things considered, has this changed your view on potentially monetizing some of your wholly owned assets? Or do you still view this mostly as a financing mechanism to fund more inorganic growth on the brick and mortar front?
Lee Fenton, CEO
I mean, listen, you've seen us do some sell leaseback over time. We tended to do it when we've got a strategic reason to do it, and I think that remains to be our outlook. So, you know, that is a big asset that we hold within the portfolio, right? We've got so many properties that are unencumbered. So we'll look at it, but we'll, you know, predominantly look at it when we've got something strategic that we think we can leverage off the back of it.
Barry Jonas, Analyst — Truist Securities
Perfect. That's all for me. Very helpful. Thanks. Thanks, Jeff.
Operator
just as a reminder to ask a question today that is star and one and we will take our next question
David Katz, Analyst — Jefferies
from david katz with jeffries please go ahead hi this is cassandra asking um for the team thanks for taking my question um i just want to get on the bid for downtown chicago license um when can we expect um a decision from from the city so the date in terms of decision from the
Lee Fenton, CEO
city has pushed out a little bit. So we're now expecting a decision in April, whereas previously that was expected in March. You know, we continue our dialogue. We continue to be excited about the opportunity as long as it's on the right term. But we're expecting a final decision come April.
David Katz, Analyst — Jefferies
Got it. And for Tropicana or Vegas, I assume that will also be rebranded once the acquisition close. Can you talk about maybe potential capital requirement there and update on the strategic plan for that property?
Lee Fenton, CEO
So we're not going to do that today, Cassandra, because as I mentioned in my remarks, we're in a number of discussions with development partners, very excited about the potential opportunities, but we're not actually in a position today to say what those plans are. We said We will confirm those plans before the end of the half year ahead of completion on that property in early Q3.
David Katz, Analyst — Jefferies
Got it. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2
Thank you.
Operator
We'll take our next question from Barry Jonas with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.
Barry Jonas, Analyst — Truist Securities
Hey, guys. Good morning. Wanted to start a nice level in the quarter. How are you thinking about that going forward?
Lee Fenton, CEO
So we obviously purchased a fair amount in the run-up to the end of the year. We continue to keep that in mind, and we continue to look at that on a basis alongside other opportunities for our cash investments. But right now, we're not active in the market, and we'll see how we go from here.
Barry Jonas, Analyst — Truist Securities
I think to Game Assist, just how should we think about this forward?
Lee Fenton, CEO
We have had somewhat of a bounce back. So, you know, our trend line in the U.K. has been somewhat consistent, you know, with our peers as we pass through some very tough comps. We were further impacted by that house edge that I mentioned, which was actually the second lowest quarter ever on record for us. And then we saw the cost of acquisition inflation in the Google auction in the second half of 21. And we decided, you know, we wanted to be disciplined in that spend and not chase. And you saw a bit of that impact on revenue in Q4. We're very happy with current trends in the UK. And we're back at where we would expect to be in terms of levels of acquisition. So I don't think that, you know, you can't say it's not going to happen again. But it's not happening currently, and so we're back on track in terms of where we would expect to be in terms of levels of STDs and the spend to achieve them.
Barry Jonas, Analyst — Truist Securities
Sneak one in. I recently had the opportunity to see Twin River Lincoln, and was just hoping to get more color on the construction there. Maybe your thoughts on ROI and really the player base you're targeting. Are you looking to kind of reclaim some lost business?
Lee Fenton, CEO
Yeah, thanks Bo. So clearly a big Asian focus there, but maybe, you know, George is super close to that. Maybe you want to add some comment?
George Papanier, Other
Sure. So, you know, we broke ground on this project in September, which will, you know, again, expand the gaming floor by 40,000 square feet. Will also allow us to create what Lee referred to, what we're building as a destination Asian targeted gaming and amenities, which will include an Asian food hall a feature bar signature water feature we had a topping off ceremony at the beginning of February additionally we're going to be adding 14,000 square feet of Korean spa and that will be constructed within our hotel where we already have 4,000 square feet that is taken we expect everything to be online for Thanksgiving in 2022 it's a bit of a defensive strategy, but clearly it's to reintroduce customers that we feel have split trips with Primarily Encore that we'd like to recapture back into providing more visitations to us.
Speaker 2
Thanks, Barry.
Operator
And there are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call back over to Lee for any closing remarks.
Lee Fenton, CEO
I'd just like to thank you for your time this morning, and thank you for your continued attention on the business. You know, I think we've got a tremendous opportunity with the assets that we've pulled together over the last 24 months at Bally's, and we're only really just getting going in terms of realizing what they can do once combined. So thank you for your time, and I wish you a great rest of day.
Operator
Goodbye. And this does conclude today's program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.