Madison Square Garden Sports - Q4 2022

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning. Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. Fiscal 2022 fourth quarter and year-end earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, press star one. I would now like to turn the call over to Ari Danes, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Ari Danes (Senior VP of Investor Relations)

Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome to MSG Sports Fiscal 2022 fourth quarter and year-end earnings conference call. Our President and CEO, Andy Lustgarten, will begin this morning's call with an update on the company's operations. This will be followed by a review of our financial results with Victoria Mink, our EVP, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer. After our prepared remarks, we will open up the call for questions. If you do not have a copy of today's earnings release, it is available in the investors section of our corporate website. Please take note of the following. Today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements.

Please refer to the company's filings with the SEC for a discussion of risks and uncertainties. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be discussed during this call. On pages four and five of today's earnings release, we provide consolidated statements of operations and a reconciliation of operating income to adjusted operating income or AOI, a non-GAAP financial measure. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Andy.

Andy Lustgarten (President and CEO)

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. As we look back on fiscal 2022, we are incredibly proud of the year we had, highlighted by record full-year financial results with revenues of over $820 million and adjusted operating income of more than $140 million. In addition, every major revenue line exceeded results for fiscal 2019, our last full year prior to the pandemic, from tickets, sponsorship and suites to food, beverage, and merchandise sales and media rights. This is a true testament to the incredible demand and enthusiasm for our iconic franchises, especially in the Knicks and Rangers first full regular season in three years. The Garden was packed night after night with our fans, who are clearly thrilled to be back supporting their teams in person.

It's also important to remember that the environment in which we operated over the past year was far from perfect, including restrictions on international travel, very low office occupancy rates in New York, and the impact of both the Delta and Omicron COVID-19 variants. Yet, despite these headwinds, we successfully navigated our business through these uncertainties. We have used the last two years to enhance the way we operate, including updating our infrastructure and processes, emerging as a stronger and more nimble organization with new growth strategies in place to drive our business. As we look ahead, we will focus on executing against these strategies and see numerous ways to grow our business, both in the near and long term.

These opportunities include new ticketing and premium hospitality products, such as new courtside seating, valuable sponsorship inventory, including our team jersey patches, and growing the Knicks' international presence, increasing our focus on knowing our consumer, including through social content, which drives our sponsorship business and through new and tailored merchandising offerings. At the league level, further upside in media rights as national deals come up for renewal. After record financial results this past year, we're already seeing our momentum carry forward, and from what we could see, excluding the impact of the playoffs, our business is poised to deliver year-over-year growth across key revenue lines in fiscal 2023. Furthermore, we remain confident that our ownership of two of the most renowned teams in all of professional sports positions us well to drive long-term value creation for our shareholders. Let's now turn to those franchises.

Both the Knicks and Rangers have a talented young core of developing players, with most under contract for multiple years. The Knicks have also amassed a substantial number of draft picks over the next seven years, further positioning the team for success in the years ahead. For the Rangers, the end of 2021-22 season was marked by a thrilling postseason run, the impact of which you could see in today's results. This included the team's first trip back to the Eastern Conference Finals since 2015, which generated one of the highest per game gate revenues ever for any NHL team in any playoff round, including the Stanley Cup Finals. Looking ahead, we know our fans are ready for play to begin, with all signs pointing to continued positive momentum for our business.

For example, the average combined season ticket renewal rate for the Knicks and Rangers 2022-2023 seasons has climbed to approximately 91%, while sales of season ticket packages to new members remain strong. We anticipate that the momentum we've seen, coupled with an increase in Rangers season ticket prices, the introduction of new technologies that have increased the effectiveness of our sales process, as well as a reconfigured Knicks courtside layout providing new floor seats, will drive solid growth in ticket revenue. The enthusiasm from our fans extends beyond just the tickets in their hands, and they demonstrated that all season at The Garden. We saw it in double-digit percentage increases versus fiscal 2019 levels in food, beverage, and merchandise per cap spending, with results hitting season highs on Henrik Lundqvist's special retirement night at the arena and during the Rangers playoff run.

They also showed it in their desire to engage with our teams outside the garden. For example, across both teams' social media channels, we added over one million net new followers this year as we continue to focus on creating compelling content to directly connect with and grow our audience. The growth in followers on our social media platforms also creates valuable additional inventory for our marketing partners. We also saw fans' enthusiasm reflected in strong viewership across traditional media. For example, the Rangers-Penguins opening round playoff series on TNT and TBS was the most-watched NHL first-round cable broadcast on record. A remarkable stat that doesn't even take into account that the series simultaneously delivered robust ratings on MSG Network's local broadcast. The impressive ratings continued as the Rangers-Lightning series in June was the most-watched Eastern Conference final since 2013.

This rating strength wasn't just limited to the playoffs. Across both leagues, the demand for premium sports content was evident the entire season. The NBA's average regular season viewership was reported to be up 19% versus last season, and was the most-watched regular season since 2018-19. In the first year of the NHL's new U.S. national media rights deal with Disney and WarnerMedia, average viewership for the league in the U.S. was up 16% as compared to last season, making it the NHL's highest since the 2016-17 season. As we have previously discussed, the NHL's new agreements align the leagues with two of the leaders in sports programming, which has clearly aided in increasing viewership and further raising the NHL's profile.

In recent weeks, new media rights agreements across various leagues have been announced, serving as further evidence of the popularity and importance of premium live sports content. This includes Major League Soccer, which landed a 10-year global deal with Apple, Formula One, which reached a significant renewal with ESPN, and cricket's Indian Premier League, all of which are reportedly multiples of their prior media rights agreements. As a reminder, the NBA's U.S. deals with Disney and WarnerMedia run through the 2024-2025 season, and with national media rights across professional sports continuing to increase in value, we remain bullish on the opportunity ahead for the NBA. Turning to marketing partnerships. Fiscal 2022 ushered in robust activity from both existing and new partners as companies reengaged with our assets and brands coming out of the pandemic, driving our marketing partnerships business to a record level.

The year was highlighted by successful renewals across a slate of key partners, from Anheuser-Busch to Kia, as well as our expansion into new categories. This includes our partnerships with Infosys and Benjamin Moore, as well as our push into mobile sports gaming following its legalization in New York State. In partnership with MSG Entertainment, we were swift and strategic in forming three expansive deals with BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook, and DraftKings. Fiscal 2023 will benefit as we will see the full run rate impact of this new category for the first time in our results. These partnerships demonstrate the unparalleled exposure we offer to companies trying to reach consumers in the New York market. As leagues open a new sponsorship inventory, we are confident we'll continue to do the same with current and future partners.

Whether it's the NHL's jersey patch and digitally enhanced dasherboards, or the NBA expanding the number of international partners a team can have, these are compelling opportunities, and we will be measured in our approach to the sales process. In the past year, we have also demonstrated the strength of our premium hospitality offerings, reminding companies as they return to corporate entertaining that there is no experience like a live game experience at the Garden. In partnership with MSG Entertainment, we saw strong suite renewal rates and new sales activity, driving record suite revenues. With average usage of our suites for Knicks and Rangers games exceeding pre-pandemic levels in the last few months of the season, we are confident in our outlook heading into next season.

As we look ahead to fiscal 2023, with new sponsorship opportunities coming to market and corporate entertaining expecting to make a more complete return, we anticipate continued growth in these revenue lines in the year ahead. We also expect to see positive effects of our business from the Rangers' outstanding run in the playoffs. Whether through improved consumer or corporate demands, we anticipate benefits to ticket, sponsorship, and suite sales. Since we last spoke, we continue to be reminded of the significant value that persists for marquee professional sports teams. This includes, in the last three months, record majority ownership transactions in the English Premier League with the Chelsea Football Club and in the NFL with the Denver Broncos.

Since the Broncos sale, Sportico has published the latest NFL team valuations, with the average team valuation above $4 billion, up 18% from last year's report, and the Dallas Cowboys leading the list at a new record high of $7.6 billion. We're eager to see the next publication of the NBA and NHL team valuations and believe these recent examples continue to highlight the untapped value of our assets relative to where our stock currently trades.

Before closing today, I'd like to take a moment to thank our fans, partners, employees, and shareholders for playing a vital role in our journey this year as we work to drive our business to record highs. As we look to fiscal 2023 and beyond, we see ample growth opportunities building off the existing strength in our business and the new growth strategies we've put in place, leaving us confident in the future of our company and our ability to generate long-term value for our shareholders. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Victoria.

Victoria Mink (EVP, CFO, and Treasurer)

Thank you, Andy, and good morning, everyone. I would like to start by discussing our financial results for both the full year and fourth quarter. I will then review our balance sheet and liquidity. For fiscal 2022, we generated total revenue of $821.4 million and adjusted operating income of $142.2 million. As a reminder, fiscal 2022 marked the first full season back for the Knicks and Rangers following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are very pleased with the strong financial performance we continue to see across the business, including, as Andy mentioned, record high results. Now turning to our fiscal 2022 fourth quarter. Our results for the quarter continue to reflect robust demand for our teams as they completed their 2021-22 regular seasons, followed by a strong playoff run by the Rangers.

I'd remind you that the prior year quarter reflected the compressed timing of the shortened 2021 NBA and NHL regular seasons, which resulted in more home games played in the prior year period than the current year period, as well as certain revenues and expenses being recognized over a shorter timeframe in the prior fiscal year. The prior year period also reflected the impact of certain capacity restrictions, as well as three Knicks playoff games as compared to the Rangers' 10 this year. These factors affected the year-over-year comparability. As a result, total revenues for the quarter were $175.2 million as compared to $146.9 million in the prior year period.

Event-related revenues represented $99.1 million in the quarter, which mainly consists of ticket, food, beverage, and merchandise revenue inclusive of the playoffs, while suites and sponsorship revenues, also inclusive of the playoffs, represented $34.4 million. In addition, national and local media rights fees represented $31.9 million of revenue this quarter. This reflected a $40.7 million decrease as compared with the prior year period, primarily due to the impact of the compressed timing of the shortened NBA and NHL 2021 seasons in the prior year period. This was partially offset by the impact of the NHL's new U.S. media rights deal, which began at the beginning of the 2021-22 season, as well as contractual rate increases on our local media rights and the NBA's national media deals.

As a reminder, the prior year period also included the recognition of the NHL expansion fee associated with the Seattle Kraken. Adjusted operating income improved $39 million to $33.2 million, primarily due to the increases in revenues, a decrease in SG&A expenses, and to a lesser extent, lower direct operating expenses. The decrease in SG&A expenses was primarily due to the absence of severance related to team executives recognized in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021, which was partially offset by higher playoff-related and other expenses as compared to the prior year period. The decrease in direct operating expenses included lower team personnel compensation and other team operating expenses, both primarily due to the compressed timing of the 2021 seasons.

These decreases were partially offset by higher revenue sharing expense, net of escrow, reflecting a return to normal levels compared to a net credit in the prior year period, as well as an increase in playoff-related expenses. As we look ahead, we believe our business is poised to deliver growth across key revenue lines in fiscal 2023, while we expect our AOI to also reflect higher team operations expenses, including league-related costs. Turning to our balance sheet, at the end of the quarter, we had $250 million of total debt outstanding, comprised of $220 million under the Knicks senior secured revolving credit facility and $30 million advanced from the NHL. Our quarter-end cash balance of approximately $91 million represented a net increase of $41.8 million compared to our March 31st balance of $49.2 million.

Our cash and debt balances both reflect $65 million of repayments on the Rangers senior secured revolving credit facility during the period, which brought our total debt pay down in fiscal 2022 to $135 million and eliminated all outstanding balances under the Rangers facility. With regards to liquidity, as of June 30th, we had $396 million of liquidity, comprised of $91 million of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents and $305 million in borrowing capacity under the team's revolving credit facilities. Based on the momentum we're seeing heading into fiscal 2023 and with the opportunities to drive long-term growth, we remain confident in the trajectory of our business. With that, I will now turn the call back over to Ari.

Ari Danes (Senior VP of Investor Relations)

Thanks, Victoria. Operator, we would now like to open the call for questions.

Operator (participant)

At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from the line of Brandon Ross from LightShed Partners. Your line is open.

Brandon Ross (Partner and Media & Technology Analyst)

Hey, Andy. It's pretty clear from your prepared remarks that sponsorship has been a big part of the revenue growth story here, and frankly at MSGE also. Just recently there have been some headwinds, especially with the crypto pullback, and we've seen some high-profile deals abandoned there. Then it seems like the sports betting industry's getting a little more rational. Does this in any way cap your upside in sponsorship?

Andy Lustgarten (President and CEO)

Thanks, Brandon. Let's take a step back for a second. I think when you talk about crypto, it doesn't make up a large part of our sponsorship business. We have two really strong partners that were new that came in last year. It's, you know, not a very large part of our whole portfolio, so we feel pretty good there. When I think about crypto, I actually don't think about crypto alone. I think about the NFT space, and NFT and really more so blockchain and the technologies that come from that. When I think about that as a category, I don't know what's coming out of blockchain. There's a lot of companies that are emerging in new technologies that I think are gonna benefit our business.

That actually takes another step back. If you went back two years, no one would've thought about crypto as part of our sponsorship book, and so what I have seen is there's always new categories coming into this business. To your point, sports betting was one that didn't exist three years ago, four years ago, which I think we've done very well on, and I'll come back to sports betting in a second. When you think about the way the cyclicality of this business is, there's always a category that comes into fashion or comes out of fashion. I think we do a great job at capitalizing.

On top of that, the leagues have done a really excellent job of opening up new inventory, which give us the opportunity to even further capitalize. Whether it be the jersey sponsorship on the Knicks side, the NHL adding jersey sponsorship, adding digital enhanced dashboard, the NBA opening up international, which we think is a really big opportunity. They're really opening international, allowing us to have 10 new partners, and we're really thinking about that. We think there's abilities to go into new categories or new inventory. I'll tell you know, as we think on the horizon, you know, marijuana and CBD are now legal in New York and the New Jersey market. While they're not permitted by the leagues, I could see that being an opportunity. I think there's further growth really here in this business.

We feel really good about it. To your question about sports gaming, we think we've got three great partners. We think that we've done a very good job of working with them and figuring out how to grow that business, and we think it's gonna continue to a very strong part of our portfolio. I will mention that last year was only a partial year, so this year you will see the full year impact in our results as we go into the future.

Brandon Ross (Partner and Media & Technology Analyst)

Great. Thank you so much.

Andy Lustgarten (President and CEO)

Absolutely.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Ben Swinburne from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Ben Swinburne (Managing Director and Head of U.S. Media Research)

Thank you. Hey, good morning, Andy. I wanted to ask about sort of the outlook over the next kind of 12, 24 months in a couple ways. One, clearly we can hear the enthusiasm for the business in your voice, but there's some concern I think in the market that the consumer spending we're seeing for a lot of events is sort of inflated or elevated based on pent-up demand. As we lap these trends a year from now, it'll decelerate. I know you don't have a crystal ball, but you see more than we do. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that, particularly as it relates to New York. Then kind of a similar line of questions on the corporate side.

Can you just remind us as you think about suites and sponsorship, kind of the typical duration of those contracts and your opportunity to reprice those as you sort of go to market in a marketplace that's really strong right now relative to maybe the last couple years?

Andy Lustgarten (President and CEO)

Sure. Happy to. Let's just start at the beginning. I'm very proud, and I think it's come across, of how we've navigated our way through the last two years, which have been incredibly difficult to operate in for a lot of sports entertainment business, especially here in New York where our venue was largely closed. What we did was we took the opportunity to really think about our infrastructure. I talked about that before. How could we operate more efficiently? We've made investments in technology, which allows us to sell better, more effectively and drive our revenue.

Then we've also put in a whole set of growth strategies, as I mentioned earlier, and I feel really strong about these that allow us to capitalize on our base business and then continue to drive forward. We have a very strong ballast of long-term agreements that provide us a real level of, you know, a certain level of certainty in our business. As we think through some of these growth initiatives, I feel good about where we're able to take the business and over the next 12-24 months, regardless of what the market is. Let's just start with what we're seeing, and I mentioned this earlier but I'll say it again. Currently, we're already at a 91% renewal on a combined basis, and we're still continuing to sell.

That's based on ticket renewals from last year. We have an increase of Rangers ticket pricing, both on our base business, you know, the renewed, as well as any new tickets that we sell, and that's both across Knicks and Rangers. We used our opportunity during COVID when the Knicks came back to the playoffs. Every single game we were looking and focusing on how many seats do we have in the building. Where could we sit in the building? What we did was, we said, "Well, wait a second. Let's go and think about exactly how we've laid out our configuration." We worked with the league, and we found a whole new set by modifying our configuration and changing where the scorers' table was and moving a few things around.

We worked with the league, and we found a whole new set of first and second row inventory that didn't exist before. We think that's another opportunity for growth. We think premium, especially in this business, is incredibly valuable. We're gonna continue to think about other premium opportunities. In terms of our sponsorship front, we think there's a tremendous amount of runway here. I mentioned this. We'll see the first full year of our betting impact this year. Multiple deals. We think there's ability for us to capitalize on an NHL jersey patch, on the digital enhanced dasher boards, which are new sets of boards allowing consumers or advertisers to reach their fans, in a better fashion when the team's on the road.

We think there's new inventory continuing. The league has been really fabulous about thinking about and innovating around the business. On our media rights fees, those are contractual both at the national level as well as the local level. We've talked about as the NBA renewals come up, we feel bullish about our opportunity given what we're seeing in the sports rights business, including today, with the Big Ten result announcements or what's being re-reported. We've been really focusing on consumer. Knowing them better, how do we reach them better, through short-form content, through merchandise. We're very focused on merchandising with things such as Kith creating a new Knicks jersey. Jeff Staple creating a little, Rangers capsule to sell in venue.

We think there's lots of things that we can continue to do like this that will continue to drive consumer demand, and we feel really strong. Lastly, obviously, with the Rangers' playoff run, what its impact on multiyear demand, we think will also buoy the business and help drive our business forward. We think there's a lot of growth, and we look forward to the next 12 and 24 months.

Ben Swinburne (Managing Director and Head of U.S. Media Research)

Thanks, Andy.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of David Karnovsky from J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.

David Karnovsky (Managing Director and Head of U.S. Media, Entertainment, and Advertising Equity Research)

Hi, thank you. Just one for Victoria. Wondering if you could update us on how you're looking at capital allocation. Is that pay down still the priority, or do you see room for maybe repurchases over the next year? How do you think about the right leverage for the business over time? Thanks.

Victoria Mink (EVP, CFO, and Treasurer)

Sure. Hi, David. You know, as we think about our capital allocation policies, you know, I break it down into. You know, we have really three priorities. You know, first is to maintain the appropriate liquidity to fund our operations and to invest in our core business, right? Yeah, as an example, you heard me mention a little bit earlier that in this upcoming fiscal year, we expect higher team operation expenses and some higher league related expenses. You know, an example of that, you know, is the impact of our current roster. You know, we were well below the NBA salary cap last year. You know, and so I would note that for the upcoming season, the NBA salary cap is increasing, right? It's increased from $112.4 million to $123.7 million.

The NHL as well, it's a more modest increase, but it's going from $81.5 million to $82.5 million. You know, it's in these areas that we're looking to, you know, continue to focus on and fund our operations, and make investments in that core business. The second priority in our mind is just to keep a strong balance sheet. You know, as we've discussed and as you mentioned, you know, this includes our focus on paying down debt, right? You know, to recap this fiscal year, that's what we've continued to do.

You know, we did another $65 million pay down on the Rangers facility in the quarter, brought our total debt pay down for the full fiscal year to $135 million, and it eliminated all of the outstanding balances under the Rangers facility. You know, we know the two variants we saw this year, right? Delta and Omicron. It's just another reminder that the environment really can be unpredictable, and it's important that we maintain the flexibility that we're gonna, you know, that we may need in the near term. The third priority, of course, you know, we would consider other uses of our free cash flow, including a return of capital. You know, at this time, we just don't have any specific plans to share.

David Karnovsky (Managing Director and Head of U.S. Media, Entertainment, and Advertising Equity Research)

Very helpful. Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Devin Brisco from Wolfe Research. Your line is open.

Devin Brisco (VP of Equity Research)

Thanks for taking my question. With the Rangers advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals, which helped contribute to an already strong quarter, could you parse out what the playoffs impact was by segment or playoff round in the quarter? And what has the strong playoff run historically meant for future performance in terms of ticketing, sponsorship suites, or any other tailwinds to your business? Thanks. I think, I'll start answering, then I'll pass to Victoria for filling a little bit more. At the highest level, obviously, we're extremely proud of the Rangers' postseason run. This is. We have a great youth, and we feel very strong about our prospects going forward.

Andy Lustgarten (President and CEO)

I think we see it from the fans' enthusiasm, both during the playoffs and as well as how they've been acting so far as we look going into this year. Historically, whenever there's a postseason run, especially a long postseason run, what you see in following years is what's the effect on demand for tickets, both on renewals, selling new fulls, and individuals. Obviously, individuals were able to then be more effective on dynamically pricing to capture further upside. Mentioned our renewal rates. The combined rate is already 91% between the two teams and still rising. In addition, when we do have a playoff run, we're able to modify our season ticket price for the following year. We're starting to see that benefit as we look forward into this year and following years.

What it really does is it also creates new fans. It's hard to put exact data around this, but the best data I can think about is what we were able to do around social media. We've been very focused on driving social media, knowing our consumer. We added about 320,000 new social followers last year in the Rangers, but almost over half of that, around half of that came just during the playoff run. Those are new fans or new people really engaged with our business that we will see buying tickets, buying merchandise, coming to our games, and consuming our product. We feel good about what that's gonna do to our business. Of course, that all happens in the same when we think about our suite renewals.

As those come up, we've got more demand and ability to price those efficiently and find a larger market for it. Corporates need to be part of the best of the entertainment here in New York City, and we deliver it. We see that with our partners. As partners come up, our marketing partners come up, we're able to think about price differently. We're able to mark our inventory to different levels. We think there's flow on for that. It's great in the quarter or the year that it happens, and it's great for follow-along years as well. Victoria, you wanna take a little bit more detail into this quarter?

Victoria Mink (EVP, CFO, and Treasurer)

Sure. All right. Of course, as Andy mentioned, you know, we couldn't be more proud of the Rangers' strong playoff run. Just to give a little recap and a little more color, right? We hosted 10 playoff games at The Garden in the fourth quarter. As you can see in our results, these games provided a significant boost to revenues in AOI. You know, first, you know, part of that comes from tickets. Our tickets are priced at a significant premium to our regular season games. You know, just a sort of a notable mention here, we generated one of the highest per game gate revenues ever for any NHL team in any playoff round, including the Stanley Cup Finals.

Of course, the excitement in the arena translates to strong F&B and merchandise sales, which was all great. I think as I mentioned on our last call, each home playoff game in the first round was expected to generate AOI of more than about $1.5 million. As we went deeper into the postseason, that per game AOI increased meaningfully as our ticket prices rose. In the quarter, our playoff-related revenues were $64.8 million as compared to $15.2 million in the prior year period, which reflected the three Knicks home playoff games last year. This translates to approximately $6.5 million in per game revenues.

With about $3 million in per game direct expenses, it results in a net $3.5 million per game on average, you know, which of course is skewed higher towards the later rounds. I will note, though, this does exclude some of our marketing administrative costs that we would incur in connection, you know, with our playoff participation.

Devin Brisco (VP of Equity Research)

Great. I appreciate the color. My second question is, now that gambling in New York has been legalized for going on eight months, you've had some time to partner with major sports betting companies, and your ratings are really strong, and just NBA and NHL ratings are strong across the league. Could you speak to the increase in engagement you've seen across your existing fan base or by new fans due to gambling? And how much of the sports betting opportunity are you monetizing at this point, and how do you see that evolving from here?

Andy Lustgarten (President and CEO)

Sure. Thank you. Well, I'll note that you actually hit a few of the key points. As to what I would respond, it's still early. It's only eight months into the run. You know, when you think about engagement, the first point of engagement to me is ratings and people coming to our events. Both of those are up. It's very hard to parse exactly what's driven by what factor, but as I take a more macro point of view, the New York market is clearly very large for gaming. We have three great partners. There has definitely been some hesitancy by certain both publicly and by other partners about the tax rate.

We think that we could see, as over time if the tax rates to change, to see even further investment and further interest in this market by our partners. But when I again take a more macro point of view and say, "Where has sports betting been much more developed?" You go to Europe or you go to other sports that have been ingrained for a long time, you see more in-game bets, you see more immediate betting.

Those are the things that actually when I take over long periods of time, I've always talked about. Yes, I'm excited about what this does for revenue directly from marketing partners, but what it does for consumer engagement, that comes from small micro bets that are more, you know, quick bets about what's gonna happen next. You look at sports like tennis, which is one of the better betting sports in other parts of the world. There's so many points or places for people to bet, so there's further engagement. I think that we're gonna see that here, both in the NBA and the NHL, as well as other sports here in the U.S. as it develops further and as the technology moves along.

We'll see more of those types of actions which will drive even further engagement. I think we've done very well as we've launched. I think our partners have been very happy with how we've been able to help drive their business, and I think that there's further growth in this industry, especially if there is changes in regulations such as kiosks, and tax rates. We feel very good here.

Devin Brisco (VP of Equity Research)

Thank you.

Ari Danes (Senior VP of Investor Relations)

Thanks, Devin. Operator, we have time for one last caller.

Operator (participant)

Your final question comes from the line of Farshid Javar from Jefferies. Your line is open.

Farshid Javar (Equity Research Associate)

Thanks for squeezing me in here. You know, you briefly touched on this a little bit, but with broader tailwinds in the NBA for international sponsors, can you maybe elaborate more on what that specific space looks like for the company?

Andy Lustgarten (President and CEO)

Sure. Absolutely. Again, I think both leagues have done an amazing job of prior to COVID thinking about new categories and new inventory, but really during COVID and coming out of it, how do we think about leading and pushing our business? One of the things that the NBA has done is there was always the opportunity to have two partners internationally, and what that means is outside, besides China and Canada, the ability to have a partner activate in international markets. The issue with when you only had two is the truth is we didn't spend a ton of time focused on trying to find the partners. Now the NBA has raised it to 10 partners, and what we've done is. Let me take a step back when I say we.

We have a lot of international experience here within MSG. I came from the NBA. I ran global strategy. I have a ton of experience doing international. Our President of Team Business Operations here is David Hopkinson. He came from before this. He was at Real Madrid, where he was the head of global partnerships, so tremendous international experience. When we think about this, we say, well, this is a great opportunity for twofold. One, it allows us to find either domestic partners who are trying to activate internationally or where I think we're gonna see further upside is new international partners.

Those partners can either be focused in their home markets, and we could divvy up even a category and have a domestic partner in a category and have an international partner in a category, or an international partner that's actually trying to find its way to the US, and unless you're out there talking to them and showing, talking about your business, you're not gonna find it. Now that we can have 10 partners, it's actually worth investing around it. We hired a couple people who are only focused on finding international partners, and with David Hopkinson and my experience, I think there's a real ability to grow this business.

As we grow this business to take us to really put the Knicks and New York as a lifestyle brand that we could take into those international markets. We'll have opportunities to both broaden our exposure, broaden our reach, and broaden our fans. We really think this is a great opportunity. It's obviously gonna take a little while to harvest. It's not immediate. Actually, one more point that I should add is if you look at some of the largest jersey patch deals, those have all come from international buyers who are trying to reach the U.S. I'm even further enthused as I think about the future of the jersey patch opportunity, given the ability for us to invest around the international to go find partners.

This will be a real driver of business long term. It'll take a little to get there, but it'll be a great big driver.

Farshid Javar (Equity Research Associate)

All right. I appreciate the color. That's all for me. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

This ends our Q&A session. Mr. Ari Danes, I turn the call back over to you for some final closing remarks.

Ari Danes (Senior VP of Investor Relations)

Thank you all for joining us. We look forward to speaking with you on our next earnings call. Have a good day.

Victoria Mink (EVP, CFO, and Treasurer)

Goodbye.

Operator (participant)

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.