March was a month reminiscent of better times for Penn’s properties, as patrons flocked back to the casino floor on a wave of vaccination optimism.
“What we’re seeing right now in the business... is revenues and volumes that I haven’t seen in years. The month of March has been incredible,” Snowden told CNBC.
Unlike during the reopenings of summer 2020, attendance in March was up across almost all demographics, with takings boosted in turn.
“We saw really high spend per visit when people came [in summer 2020], but the visitation was still way down year over year because those that were 65-plus years old weren’t coming back,” Snowden said.
“What we’re seeing now is the spend per visit was still much higher than it was pre-Covid, but visitation levels now in the month of March look a lot like they did in 2019, so you have those two things working together. We had one of the biggest weekends this last weekend that we have seen in years.”
A key part of this positive performance has been Penn’s recently-launched sportsbook – provided in partnership with Barstool Sports. The platform is currently live in three states – Pennsylvania, Michigan and Illinois – and has been performing positively across February’s Super Bowl and the current March Madness tournament.
“All the wagers that took place on Super Bowl, we almost surpassed that amount in Pennsylvania and Michigan ... on the first day of March Madness,” Snowden remarked. “We blew past, almost doubled, what we saw for Super Bowl within the first two days of March Madness.”
