Earnings Call Transcript - BYD Q3 2023

David Strow, Vice President of Corporate Communications

Good afternoon and welcome to the Boyd Gaming Third Quarter 2023 Conference Call. My name is David Strow, Vice President of Corporate Communications for Boyd Gaming. I will be the moderator for today's call, which is being recorded on Tuesday, October 24, 2023. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following our remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Our speakers for today's call are Keith Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Josh Hirsberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our comments today will include statements that are forward-looking statements within the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. All forward-looking statements in our comments are as of today's date, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement. 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 will make reference to non-GAAP financial measures. For a complete reconciliation of historical non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures, please refer to our earnings press release and our Form 8-K furnished to the SEC today, both of which are available at investors.boydgaming.com. We do not provide a reconciliation of forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures due to our inability to project special charges and certain expenses. Today's call is being webcast live at boydgaming.com and will be available for replay in the Investor Relations section of our website shortly after the completion of this call. So with that, I would now like to turn the call over to Keith Smith.

Keith Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, David, and good afternoon, everyone. Our results for the third quarter reflect the value of our strategic focus on our core customers, the benefits of our growth initiatives, and our diversified business model. For the quarter, company-wide revenues grew 3% to $903 million. During the quarter, we continued to see growth in play from our core customers, increasing 1%. This is on top of last year's strong growth of 5% from this segment. This increase in play from our core customer segment was offset by a 4% year-over-year decline in retail play during the quarter. Importantly, total play from our retail customer segment has remained at consistent levels since late last year, reflecting a stable retail consumer. We also produced growth in non-gaming revenue during the quarter, with hotel revenue increasing more than 4% and food and beverage revenue growing nearly 5%, in both cases driven by strong cash business. And with respect to our growth initiatives, we once again delivered strong results from Sky River and our online gaming segments. On a company-wide basis, EBITDAR decreased 5% to $321 million, while property-level operating margins were 40%, reflecting ongoing cost pressures and a return to normal seasonality. Now, moving to segment results. In our Las Vegas Locals segment, operating performance on a year-over-year basis was similar to our performance in the second quarter of this year and consistent with the expectations we outlined on our last call. During the quarter, we continued to drive solid growth in core customer play, which increased 2%. The play from our retail customers was down approximately 4% year-over-year. However, performance from this customer group has remained stable in the local segment since late last year. We also saw a nearly 6% increase in non-gaming revenue, with both hotel and food and beverage revenues growing during the quarter. With respect to our EBITDAR and margin performance, our Locals results continue to be impacted by ongoing cost pressures on our business. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, we expect that trends among both core customers and retail players will remain consistent with the last several quarters. We also expect that current cost pressures will continue into the fourth quarter, though overall expenses should be sequentially consistent with the levels we saw in the third quarter. Also in the fourth quarter, we anticipate there will be some impact from the opening of a new competitor. As we have seen with previous openings of new properties, we expect some initial trial visitation from our customers to this new property. However, after this initial trial is over, we expect this impact will fade, our customers will return, and long-term growth will continue as the Las Vegas market absorbs this new capacity. Next, in Downtown Las Vegas, underlying business trends remain healthy. Consistent with the second quarter, segment results were impacted by an ongoing room remodel project at Main Street Station, as well as the final stages of the Fremont renovation. The California, which benefits from Main Street Station's hotel rooms, was also impacted during the quarter from the ongoing work at Main Street. Main Street's room remodel project is in its final stages, and we expect it to be complete by year-end, allowing both the California and Main Street to return to growth. At the Fremont, we are driving strong results from the comprehensive remodel and expansion of our casino and non-gaming amenities, which we completed in October. Even with disruption during the third quarter, Fremont achieved strong revenue growth and record third quarter EBITDAR as our renovations drove increased traffic and visitation to the property. This strong performance of the Fremont comes against the backdrop of a thriving Downtown Las Vegas market. Pedestrian traffic remains strong along Fremont Street, and we continue to benefit from solid visitation from our core Hawaiian customer segments. Thanks to these healthy trends in our recent investments, we expect improved results in Downtown Las Vegas in 2024. Looking at our Southern Nevada operations as a whole, the continued growth of our core customer, the stability of the retail customer, and the strength of the Las Vegas economy all give us optimism for the future. Visitation to Las Vegas is up nearly 8% year-to-date. Convention and meeting business is up 30% this year. Average daily room rates are up more than 10% across the market this year. Airport traffic is at all-time highs on a trailing 12-month basis. And with upcoming events like Formula One in the Super Bowl, a busy convention calendar, the recent debut of the Sphere, and the fourth quarter openings of two new resorts with nearly 4,000 hotel rooms, the stage is set for continued growth in the Southern Nevada market. Local economic indicators remain positive as well. Total employment in Southern Nevada is up nearly 5% over the last 12 months, and our local population continues to grow. The development pipeline remains robust with $6 billion in projects currently under construction in Southern Nevada. And with billions of dollars in additional projects now in the planning phase, the Las Vegas economy has a firm foundation for continued economic growth well into the future. Moving to the Midwest and South region, customer trends remained stable during the quarter. We continued to see broad-based growth in core customer volumes, offset by year-over-year declines in retail play. Similar to other segments, volume from retail customers has remained at consistent levels in the Midwest and South since the fourth quarter of last year. Overall, our customer trends have been consistent across the Midwest and South segment in recent quarters, and we believe these trends will continue in the fourth quarter. And much like Las Vegas, cost pressures impacted the performance in the Midwest and South region during the quarter. We expect that this will continue overall expenses in the fourth quarter, running at similar levels to the third quarter. Next, in our Online segment, EBITDAR continued to grow versus prior year, and this segment is now on track to achieve $60 million to $65 million in EBITDAR for the full year. Similar to the second quarter, we benefited from strong results from FanDuel’s operations as well as contributions from Boyd Interactive, which we acquired last November. And finally, our Managed & Other business produced $19 million in EBITDAR during the quarter. Management fees from Sky River Casino in Northern California represent $17 million of this performance, as this property has consistently exceeded our expectations since opening in August of last year. As a result of Sky River's strong performance, our company's loan to the Tribe was effectively repaid earlier this month. Based on the property's strong start, the Tribe is actively working on plans to expand Sky River by adding additional casino square footage, hotel rooms, and meeting and convention space. While these plans are still preliminary, the Tribe and our company are optimistic about the potential of an expansion project given Sky River's performance to date. As a result of Sky River's strong results, we expect our Managed & Other business to maintain a pace of about $19 million in EBITDAR during the fourth quarter and into next year. Recall that during last year's fourth quarter we received a one-time development fee of $5 million related to the Sky River project. So in all, on a company-wide basis, we continue to deliver solid results. Given our company's continued operating strength, low leverage, and strong free cash flow, we are able to execute a balanced capital allocation program that includes reinvesting in our properties and returning capital to our shareholders. Over the past two years, we have returned over $1 billion to our shareholders while maintaining a strong balance sheet. Going forward, we remain committed to our $100 million per quarter share repurchase program and our regular dividend program. In addition to this ongoing capital return program, we remain focused on investing in our core operating properties. Our recently completed renovation of the Fremont and a project to move our Treasure Chest operation onto land to improve the customer experience are just two examples of this initiative. The strong results we are achieving at the Fremont represent the potential of these types of investments. With Fremont now complete and Treasure Chest nearing its final stages, we expect to announce additional projects sometime next year. Beyond these capital projects, and as part of our ongoing maintenance capital plan, we are also making investments in many of our hotel, food and beverage, and facilities to ensure we offer a fresh and relevant offering for our customers. This is not a new initiative, but rather part of an ongoing focus to ensure our properties and amenities remain competitive and meet customer demands. As an example, we recently introduced a new high-limit room at the Suncoast, and we will be opening seven new restaurant concepts nationwide during the fourth quarter, with more to come next year. We also have several hotel renovations starting in the fourth quarter and continuing into next year as we look to ensure our hotel product remains relevant for our customers. And all of this was another solid quarter for our company. Once again, we proved the effectiveness and resiliency of our diversified business model, led by our focus on our core customer and strong performance from our growth initiatives. While we are not immune to cost pressures, our operating teams continue to manage the business efficiently. Going forward, we will continue to utilize our free cash flow to create shareholder value through our property reinvestments, our ongoing capital return programs, and strategic acquisitions. I would like to thank our entire team for their dedication and contributions to another solid quarter of performance. It is an honor to be part of such a great group of team members. Thank you for your time today. I'd now like to turn the call over to Josh.

Josh Hirsberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Keith. This was another solid quarter for our company. Our core customers are continuing to perform well, even growing in this challenging environment. In terms of our retail customers, consistent with recent quarters, we experienced softness on a year-over-year basis during the quarter. Retail customer volumes took a step down beginning in the fourth quarter of last year. However, sequentially, these volumes have remained consistent since then. As we experienced year-over-year operating trends in the third quarter, as we expected, year-over-year operating trends in the third quarter were very similar to those in the second quarter, as we face more difficult comparisons and experience a continued return of seasonality to our business. Our operating teams have continued to deliver at a very high level of efficiency. Property-level margins were 40%, while company-wide margins were 36%. Consistent with what we experienced during the second quarter, major expense categories that increased year-over-year during the third quarter were wages, utilities, and property insurance. Moving to our Online segment, we expect this part of our business to generate $60 million to $65 million in EBITDAR this year. During the third quarter, the tax pass-through amount related to our online partnerships was $71 million this year versus $45 million last year in the third quarter. These amounts were recorded as both revenue and expense in this segment and impacted overall corporate-wide margins by more than 300 basis points this quarter compared to 200 basis points last year in the third quarter. Capital expenditures were $108 million during Q3, including spend for both Fremont and Treasure Chest. Year-to-date, capital expenditures have been $280 million. We continue to project total capital expenditures for the year of approximately $350 million, including $250 million of maintenance capital and $100 million related to Treasure Chest and Fremont. Now that Fremont is complete, and as we anticipate opening Treasure Chest mid-next year, we expect to announce additional growth projects during the upcoming year. As Keith already mentioned, as part of our annual maintenance capital spend this year and next year, we have planned several restaurant upgrades and hotel room remodels. In terms of our capital return program, we have repurchased $106 million in stock during the quarter, representing 1.6 million shares at an average price of $65.30 per share. This resulted in an actual share count at the end of the quarter of 98.4 million shares. Additionally, we paid a quarterly dividend of $0.16 per share on October 15. Between share repurchases and dividends, we have returned more than $1 billion to shareholders since resuming our capital return program two years ago. And, by year-end, we will have returned over $1 billion through our share repurchase program alone. As of September 30, we have approximately $426 million remaining under our current repurchase authorization. Thanks to our substantial free cash flow, we have balanced our capital return program and our property reinvestments while maintaining a strong balance sheet. Our total leverage at the end of the quarter was 2.3x, while lease-adjusted leverage was 2.7x. We have no near-term maturities and ample borrowing capacity under our credit agreement. Our balance sheet is the strongest in the company's history, providing us the confidence in our ability to reinvest in our portfolio and return capital to shareholders while pursuing opportunities to further grow our company. David, that concludes our remarks, and we're now ready to take any questions.

David Strow, Vice President of Corporate Communications

Thank you, Josh. We will now begin our question-and-answer session. Our first question comes from Joe Greff of JPMorgan. Joe, please go ahead.

Joe Greff, Analyst

Hi, thank you, everybody. Afternoon, Josh, Keith. Just circling back on the topic of OpEx pressures. When you look at OpEx pressures by your reportable geographic segments, is there much of a difference in cost pressures in Las Vegas versus the Midwest and South? It looks like in the quarter, the sequential changes in margins and expenses were more acute in the regionals versus the locals. I don't know if that's a fair way of looking at it on a sequential quarter-over-quarter changes this year versus last year. But if you could help us understand that, that would be great.

Josh Hirsberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yes. So Joe, I'll try to answer or give you a sense of that. I think there – first of all, there is some seasonality related to expenses, right. So utilities, which were a large part of the increases when you look quarter-over-quarter, have to do primarily or in this instance are entirely impacting Nevada's operations. On the other hand, when you look at increases in property taxes or property insurance, that is more weighted toward – although it did impact Nevada, but it's definitely more impacted the Midwest and South assets. And that can be kind of a one-off – especially when you're looking year-over-year, have to be a little careful because there are just kind of one-off changes that may not be impacting the business going forward. I think the bigger component of – when you look year-over-year is definitely labor. And there's really not anything unique regionally about that other than just the company's practices to give wages to – raises to its hourly team members on a July 1 basis. I don't think that's applied in the Midwest and South. But that's the only nuance there. I generally think of the impact. These are nuances that you can point to as differences between the segments. But largely, the spread of costs are all pretty even across all the segments of our business. I hope that helps you a little bit.

Joe Greff, Analyst

I do. That is helpful. Thanks, Josh. And this is more of a specific question to Las Vegas Locals and Downtown, with Durango and Fontainebleau opening up over the next two months here, are you experiencing above-average employee departures turnover? And with presumably higher wages on the Strip associated with this new union contract, do you see labor pressures incrementally worsening in the fourth quarter and early next year? And if so, could you help quantify that amount?

Keith Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. So with respect to kind of talent wars, if you will, and what we're experiencing on that front, we've seen a little bit of additional turnover as people are looking at some of these new positions, but it is not significant. We obviously have known these properties were going to be opening on these timelines for a while now, and so we’ve been able to prepare for it. So it’s nothing significant, nothing that is impacting the business, Joe, in terms of additional turnover or employees kind of moving on to the next opportunity. In terms of wages, hard to tell where they’re going to land on the Strip, rates will be higher than they are today. Do I think it will impact once again? Will people migrate to the Strip for those higher wages? I don’t think so. They are already – the Strip already pays generally more than we’re paying in the Locals market, and people could already make that decision today if they wanted to. We’ve raised wages here over the course of the last year or two and feel like we’re in a good place, but it is a competitive marketplace, and I think we’ll just have to see what happens on the Strip and deal with it as it comes. I don’t have any prediction as to what will happen on the Strip, how much of an increase it will be, and what the ripple effect could end up being, but we’ll obviously pay close attention.

Josh Hirsberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Joe, I think one thought I would add to your question is, I think as we look at expenses for Q3 and think about how they relate to what they may imply going forward, I think generally we think or feel like the order of magnitude of expenses that we incurred in Q3, when you look at them by segment, that’s what you largely can expect going forward at least from what we know today. In other words, we don’t expect our overall expense structure to be increasing disproportionately going forward. We expect kind of the level of expenses that we’re seeing in terms of total dollars to be largely the same.

Joe Greff, Analyst

Got it. Thank you very much.

Keith Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah.

David Strow, Vice President of Corporate Communications

Thank you. Our next question comes from Steve Wieczynski of Stifel. Steve, please go ahead.

Steve Wieczynski, Analyst

Yeah. Hey, guys, good afternoon. So I’m not sure if this is a fair statement or not, and correct me if I’m wrong, but as we kind of think about moving forward, is it going to be tougher for you guys to cut operating expenses from here if your revenue stream, your top line continues to be a little bit softer? And if that’s the case, is there anything you can do on the CapEx side of your business to offset some of those higher operating expenses? I mean, do you go down the path of cutting slot budgets or other things like that to potentially offset your higher operating expenses?

Keith Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer

Look, as we think about total operating expenses, given our margins today, we are running a very efficient business. And so I think it's a fair statement to say that we don’t have as much room to fine-tune the business as we did, let’s say, pre-COVID. And so we have to be very careful going forward in terms of how we adjust, what we adjust to make sure it doesn’t impact the top line. Having said that, do we have flexibility on the CapEx side? I think absolutely. I think we have a very robust maintenance capital budget that we’re comfortable with. I think over the years, we’ve always been able to use that as a lever to balance any declines in the business or declines in overall free cash flow that we see. And when times are good, spend a little more, and times are maybe a little tougher, we can always pull back. We’re very careful about that because we don’t want to impact the overall condition of our properties in what is a very competitive market, not just here in Las Vegas but across the country.

Steve Wieczynski, Analyst

Got you. Thanks for that, guys. And then the second question, wondering if you could give any update in terms of changes to the promotional environment around the majority of your operating markets? Meaning, have you seen any changes from your competitors to offset any type of slowdown they might be encountering from a visitation standpoint or spend standpoint? Again, you’ve got two pretty big properties coming into the Las Vegas Locals market. And do you change the way you think about your promotional spending for that market specifically?

Keith Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. I think look, as you look across, I think the country globally, the promotional environment has been fairly stable or rational. Here in Las Vegas, the major operators have been very stable, and it has not been highly promotional. It’s been stable. The people who got aggressive or the individual properties maybe who got more aggressive coming out of COVID have stayed aggressive. The other operators have stayed kind of very disciplined through Q3, and I’d expect that to be continuing into Q4. As we look at our regional markets, it’s largely the same. Those players that got aggressive post-COVID have stayed aggressive, and those players that have remained disciplined after COVID are still being disciplined. We’re not seeing much in the way of people stepping out and getting aggressive. Our customers have the opportunity today to participate in those more aggressive programs. They don’t. They stay with us. And so I don’t see much changing in that landscape even with two new openings here in Las Vegas.

Steve Wieczynski, Analyst

Got you. Thanks, Keith. Thanks, Josh. Appreciate it.

David Strow, Vice President of Corporate Communications

Thank you. Our next question comes from Barry Jonas of Truist Securities. Barry, please go ahead.

Barry Jonas, Analyst

Hey, guys, I wanted to dig in a little bit more into the retail softness. You’ve noted any specific geography or segment of the database you’d highlight, and if possible, can you maybe help frame the size and, say, importance of retail versus core segments to any extent you're comfortable with. Thanks.

Josh Hirsberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

So I think – when we think about the retail business, it’s an impact – we saw similar impacts in Las Vegas that we saw in the Midwest & South. So it's not, to the extent, geographic in any sense or property specific, it's across all segments. And so it's not isolated or unique to any one set of properties. I think as we think about kind of the overall impact of retail to kind of the core business, first, think about retail in two categories. One, being the unrated segment, and the second component of retail being the lower-end rated segments. And within our rated database, generally, the trend is pretty consistent. So that rated core customer growth is offsetting any softness in the lower-end part of the database that falls into the retail category, where we’re seeing kind of – where we don't have the ability to kind of offset through the growth in the core customer is the softness in the unrated segment. It's certainly not the entire segment, because some of those customers are obviously good, but we are seeing softness in the unrated segment, and that's definitely related to the economic impact. We track about 60% of our business overall, and so the rated business – the unrated business as a category is about 40% of our business, and that's on the slot side of things. So I don't know if that helps you understand kind of the customer trends that we're dealing with or not, but hopefully, that puts it in some sort of perspective for you, Barry.

Barry Jonas, Analyst

Yes, Josh, that's helpful. And then just as a follow-up, I appreciate the commentary on the Durango opening, but I guess I had a longer-term question around the Vegas locals market and your capital allocation strategy. Red Rock has been talking about ultimately doubling its footprint in the market. So I was just curious if you could talk about how you think about further investment or even expansion into the marketplace over time.

Keith Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer

So one of the things that I mentioned we're doing is upgrading many of our hotel rooms and many of our restaurants. That is to make sure that, again, we have a very current relevant product for our customers. We do have significant acreage at many of our properties here locally at the Orleans, at the Suncoast, at the Gold Coast, at Aliante, to be able to grow these businesses. We've talked in the past about trying to invest in and leverage up strong existing businesses where we believe we can continue to grow them and get a good return on investment. The first two were Fremont and Treasure Chest, and we'll be announcing a few more next year. But certainly, our locals properties have some of those dynamics where we have very, very strong performers that we think can continue to grow their business with some additional capital investment. I'm not ready to describe exactly what those are; that'll be middle of next year, but we do have those opportunities. We are looking at them and reviewing them, and we'll be in a place to talk about them sometime in the middle of next year.

Barry Jonas, Analyst

Great. Thanks, Keith. Thanks, Josh.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Carlo Santarelli of Deutsche Bank. Carlo, please go ahead.

Carlo Santarelli, Analyst

Hey, guys. Thanks. You guys obviously talked a little bit about the competitor opening in the fourth quarter. And just to kind of put into context, I would imagine it would be Orleans, where you'd feel a little bit of impact. And I know you guys don't provide any kind of real property level, but just more or less looking to frame, like, what you think from a Las Vegas locals impact perspective that that opening could have on Orleans or the broader portfolio in an otherwise, say, flattish environment in 2024. Just kind of thinking about the magnitude of what you see in that impact. And do you see any kind of lasting impact or do you believe it'll just be trial and dry up fairly quickly?

Josh Hirsberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yes, Carlo. So it's a good question. I think – look, I don't think we feel like we're going to have the direct impact as a result of the new competitor coming into the marketplace. I think we believe that over time the market will absorb the new supply and kind of all boats will benefit from a rising tide. So I think that's big picture, how we think about what's going on, so there'll be some kind of short to intermediate term pressure on our business. We’re not the direct impact of it. And then over time, the market just kind of grows through all of that. And I think that’s consistent with what we said in our market – in our prepared comments. When we think about the impacts to our business, I think we think of it primarily as Orleans, which is shortest by distance, but not necessarily a direct and easy drive from that asset to the property. So that’s a consideration and then Suncoast on the other side of a major competitor here in Las Vegas. So I think if we think about kind of generally the impact to the business overall, it’s got to be kind of low to mid-single digits at most of the overall Las Vegas Locals segment. So we generate $450 million to $500 million of EBITDA. Kind of worst case, 5% would be up to $25 million EBITDA impact for all of next year. And I think that would be pretty conservative from our perspective.

Carlo Santarelli, Analyst

Okay. Great. And then, Josh, if I could just kind of a follow-up on some of the comments you made earlier. You talked obviously about the cost increases. You guys walked through kind of the buckets where they were coming. You also made a point of kind of saying that Q4, a lot of stability relative to Q3. As you look out to 2024 and we think about those various buckets, obviously, labor will be something that that likely persists. But how much kind of a headwind are you thinking about for 2024 as it pertains to kind of the cost side and some of the buckets that you mentioned?

Josh Hirsberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yes. So I think what we’re actually seeing is we kind of saw a pretty dramatic impact from expenses in 2022 and into 2023. I think we’re starting to see a leveling off of those expenses to some degree. Not to say that they’re not going to increase or they’re not going away, but as I think about the expenses, like for instance, we’ve talked a lot about the minimum wage program we rolled out, middle of next year we’ll anniversary that program. Utilities that have been going up double digits, really, when you look at 2022 versus 2021 are now mid to high-single digits and starting to be in the low-single digits. So we’re starting to get to the point where they at least when we think about the major categories of expenses, they’re feeling like they’re starting to level off to some degree. A lot of this – some of this has to do with how we think about managing the business going forward. Some of these things we don’t have much control over like property insurance rates or property taxes to some degree. But I think as we evaluate where the expenses kind of year-over-year are trending and we look at where we think in the near-term those expenses are going, which we don’t believe are changing materially, I think we feel like we’re moving into a period of expenses that will grow, but just be more stable overall for us, and we’ll be able to manage through it. I think what gets more difficult is the question of, if the consumer continues to get weaker. Now we haven’t seen that. We’re not seeing it at the retail level. We’ve seen strength in the core customer. But I think what we’re trying to paint a picture of from what we see today is a fairly stable expense environment. There’s going to be nuances in seasonality and today currently at least a stable consumer environment. We’re going to have disruption with respect to Main Street Hotel that will continue into Q4. Once that’s all done, Downtown should be ready to run for 2024. We’ll have some disruption related to the introduction of the competitor, and we’ll have to work through that in Las Vegas locals through a period of 2024. But absent that, if you were able to kind of remove that impact in some way, I think you would have a business that has kind of very consistent performance with what we’re seeing today. And then the Midwest and South also stable core customer, hopefully a retail customer that doesn’t show any further weakness going into 2024. And we kind of get beyond some of the construction that we felt at some of our assets in this quarter, so 2024 looks to be a stable year for us in the Midwest and South. But I don’t know, Keith, do you want to add anything to that because I’ve tried to kind of give it a big broad brush. But Carlo, I hope that helps.

Carlo Santarelli, Analyst

Absolutely. Thank you.

Josh Hirsberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yes.

David Strow, Vice President of Corporate Communications

Thank you. Our next question comes from David Katz of Jefferies. David, please go ahead.

David Katz, Analyst

Hi. Afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. If we could go in another direction, just talk online for a minute, obviously progressing nicely there. Just recalling what you spent on the acquisition, I believe it was about $125 million and then some other investments. Any color you can give us on where you think that might go or could go or payback period or ROI or any of that sort of vision would be helpful.

Keith Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. So the acquisition of what then was Pala Interactive, which is now Boyd Interactive is moving along well. We relaunched the Stardust platform in Pennsylvania and New Jersey earlier this year, kind of beginning of May. And thus far, I’m very pleased with this performance. We bought the business and we chose to get more directly involved in the online gaming business because we view it as a long-term play. This wasn’t about a short-term kind of IRR or ROI. This is really about kind of long-term controlling the journey of the customer, having a holistic view of that customer and wanting to help build kind of another growth database and somebody we can market to. So we’re very happy with the early launches in Pennsylvania in the month of August, after just 90 days of being operating on the Stardust platform. We’ve exceeded the highest iGaming or iCasino levels that FanDuel had done when they were running it for us, so we’re very happy with the performance, and it’s growing. But it’s early. And we’re not at a point of talking about returns on investment at this point, but it is a long-term play and something where – once again, we view it as an important part of a long-term strategy having both an online business as well as a strong land-based business to compete effectively.

David Katz, Analyst

Understood. And with respect to the capital decisions you’re making for next year, I just wanted to get a sense for where the boundaries are, are things that are more larger or more transformative. I know of one company that’s up for sale that we’ve read about or strip investments and things like that? I just wanted to get a sense for how big we should think or should we just look at your portfolio and think about properties that may need some expansion or upgrade?

Keith Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I think when we were talking about capital investments, it was – as I think I discussed in my prepared remarks, it’s more about our maintenance capital budget and improving existing facilities, number one. So we’re going to open seven new restaurants in the fourth quarter this year across the country as a way to make sure that we have a fresh product for our customers. We’ve got several room remodels starting just because you need to do that. We’ll continue to put those kinds of programs through 2024. We’ll be opening another seven or eight new restaurants next year and have some more room remodels. We will look at, and we will announce later in the year kind of our next phase of, you want to call it expansion or growth capital programs like the Fremont, like Treasure Chest; we’re not ready to discuss those yet. But as I said, it will be existing property that’s a strong, high performer that’s in a strong market where we think we can continue to grow the business. And we have several of those that fit that profile. We’re just trying to decide what the priority is and when to get those projects started. But not prepared to talk about it now, but certainly by the middle of next year, we’ll be prepared to discuss what is next for us in terms of growth as opposed to maintenance.

David Strow, Vice President of Corporate Communications

Thank you. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Josh for concluding remarks.

Josh Hirsberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, David. And we appreciate everyone dialing in today and the questions you guys have asked. And to the extent there's any follow-up or additional questions, feel free to reach out to the company. Thanks again.

David Strow, Vice President of Corporate Communications

Thanks, Josh. This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.