{"id":14652,"date":"2014-09-29T11:07:14","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T19:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14652"},"modified":"2014-09-29T11:19:25","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T19:19:25","slug":"boyd-pinnacle-speak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/boyd-pinnacle-speak\/","title":{"rendered":"Boyd, Pinnacle speak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"boyd-gaming-200\"<\/a>Both Boyd Gaming<\/strong> and Pinnacle Entertainmen<\/strong>t met with Wall Street<\/strong> analysts this week, everybody being in town for Global Gaming Expo<\/strong>. Boyd CEO Keith Smith<\/strong> and CFO John Hirsberg<\/strong> said they saw an abatement in negative business trends, now confined to specific markets \u00a0instead of company-wide. Positive trends in the Las Vegas<\/strong> economy and less comping were seen as shoring up business on Boyd’s home turf, although spend-per-player is still 20% off peak levels.<\/p>\n

“[M]anagement remains surprised by its ability to continue to extract operating costs from the business,” wrote Deutsche Bank<\/strong>‘s Carlo Santarelli<\/strong>. He added that the company will be investing in more infrastructure and information technology with an eye to even greater cost savings. As for the Atlantic City<\/strong> Massacre’s impact on Borgata<\/strong> business, “Atlantic City closures have show up in stronger F&B, entertainment, and hotel room trends, but have had a limited impact on the gaming floor.”<\/p>\n

\"Pinnacle\"<\/a>Over at Pinnacle, top management was sanguine about the impact Tilman Fertitta<\/strong>‘s Golden Nugget<\/strong> will have on L’Auberge Lake Charles<\/strong>. They described the Houston market as the most robust in the nation and added that “over the past two to three years, virtually every aspect of L\u2019Auberge has been refreshed, leaving the physical structure with a solid competitive position.” Golden Nugget’s 720 hotel rooms actually come as something of a blessing “given L\u2019Auberge\u2019s lack of availability at certain peak times.”<\/p>\n

“Management believes it is at the point where revenue synergies are starting to take effect at the [Ameristar]\u00a0properties,” J.P. Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong> wrote, \"Ameristar<\/a>adding that Pinnacle’s #1 priority remains deleveraging from the Ameristar purchase. Pinnacle with currently exploring REIT conversion (a la Penn National<\/strong>) and has engaged outside firms to walk it through the process. Whether the decision is yea or nay, an answer will be forthcoming in two months.<\/p>\n

Given weak early returns from Belterra Park<\/strong>, the racino is adding an outside gambling terrace for smokers “which will be the first of its kind in Ohio<\/strong>.”Strategically, management remains focused on keeping promotions under control and building a profitable customer database over the longer term, similar to the strategy used with the opening of L’Auberge Baton Rouge<\/strong>,” added Greff.<\/p>\n

* Congratulations<\/strong> to Talking Stick Resort<\/strong> in Scottsdale<\/strong>, Arizona<\/strong>, on being named “Best Casino of 2014” by Phoenix New Times<\/em>. Rhapsodized the paper<\/a>, “While many casino experiences can be defined with the words denial and depressing, Talking Stick manages to stay fresh, young, and surprisingly fun for a place that can make or break your personal piggy bank.” Talking Stick was also lauded for having the state’s largest poker room. Kudos to the\u00a0Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indians<\/strong> for letting their stick do the talking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both Boyd Gaming and Pinnacle Entertainment met with Wall Street analysts this week, everybody being in town for Global Gaming Expo. Boyd CEO Keith Smith and CFO John Hirsberg said they saw an abatement in negative business trends, now confined … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,109,23,60,51,84,71,69,30,111,129,20,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14652"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14652"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14655,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14652\/revisions\/14655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}