I had to snigger when I overheard my wife placating my son about being prescribed John Milton’s epic yawn Paradise Lost for his second-year English course. That’s one sure way to liven up an LLB.
I remember enjoying a certain duality with the Rhodes University English department in the mid-1980s too. On my first day one professor turned up to a poetry lecture in his Oxford academic gown — just in case we doubted his lofty credentials.
Our first lecture on novels was completely different. At first I thought a janitor was cleaning the chalkboard, but then this shabbily dressed person started lecturing us in a quiet voice. That was the late, great Don Maclennan, and he never needed as much as a badly knotted tie to impress me.
While I lapped up Conrad, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Faulkner and Bellow, I never got around to delving more than a few pages into Paradise Lost. Having to answer three of four questions for finals (Donne, Chaucer, Keats or Milton), I found myself completely stumped by the Troilus and Criseyde section. So I had to tackle "Discuss the relationship between the creator and the created in Paradise Lost". I filled a few pages with complete twaddle (my biblical knowledge was also scant since my early expulsion from Sunday School). I cringed at the thought of an Oxford-educated professor marking my paper. Somehow I passed English, but still have nightmares so vivid that I scurry to my safe to double-check that I really do have a journalism degree.
While on the topic of sinning, it might be a case of "paradise regained" for gaming giant Sun International. I found some encouraging flutters in its results for the year to December — especially the robust showing of the alternative gaming assets (mainly limited-payout machines, or LPMs, under Sun Slots and sports betting under SunBet). These generated about R1.4bn in revenue, which is more than was spun at top line by GrandWest, Sun’s biggest casino operation. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) came in at R311m, representing a very decent margin of 22%, with operating profit a chunky R220m.
There seems to be a concerted effort to build the sports betting business, which grew revenue 33% but incurred a small loss due to extra marketing and staffing costs.
It will be interesting to see whether a fast-growing SunBet can turn a meaningful profit
Betting the house
With further opportunities in the core LPM business likely to see Sun Slots extend its top-line gains, it will be interesting to see whether a fast-growing SunBet can turn a meaningful profit.
To offer further perspective on the alternative hub (and to possible future restructuring at Sun), LPMs and sports betting made R70m more than the combined operating profits of the Boardwalk, Meropa, Flamingo, Windmill and Golden Valley casinos.
Even if the Carnival City casino’s operating profit of R79m is added in, the alternative gaming assets almost match the combined operating profit of Sun’s "smaller" casino properties. Perhaps this isn’t a fair comparison, since urban casinos were badly disrupted by Covid. But the alternative gaming hub will be increasingly important, particularly as online gaming gains traction.
As regards Sun’s large casino properties, GrandWest looks as stout as ever and will keep its exclusivity in Cape Town for a while longer. Sibaya in Durban was the star performer with an ebitda margin of 33%.
Naturally, shareholders will still be staring hard at the new Time Square casino, which was built at an enormous cost to Sun’s balance sheet.
Sun’s Gauteng casinos increased market share from 25.5% in 2019 to 27.3% in 2021. Time Square posted revenue of R977m with ebitda of R274m. A 28% margin is satisfactory when measured against hard-won market share gains. Hopefully a normal trading year should give an inkling around sustainable profitability.
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