Speaker 1: Bloomberg is now on your dashboard with Apple CarPlay and
Speaker 1: Android Auto. It gives you access to every Bloomberg podcast,
Speaker 1: live audio feeds from Bloomberg Radio, print stories from Bloomberg
Speaker 1: News in audio form, and the latest headlines of the
Speaker 1: click of a button with Bloomberg News. Now it's free
Speaker 1: with the latest version of the Bloomberg Business App. That's
Speaker 1: the Bloomberg Business App. Get it on your phone in
Speaker 1: the Apple App Store or on Google Play. Just download
Speaker 1: the app, connect your phone to your car and get started.
Speaker 1: And it's all presented by our sponsor, Interactive Brokers.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, alongside
Speaker 2: my co host Matt Miller.
Speaker 1: Every business day we bring you interviews from CEOs, market pros,
Speaker 1: and Bloomberg experts, along with essential market moven News.
Speaker 2: Find the Bloomberg Markets Podcast called Apple Podcasts or wherever
Speaker 2: you listen to podcasts, and at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast.
Speaker 2: All right, let's get a sense here of kind of
Speaker 2: how this is playing out terms of retail sales holiday shopping.
Speaker 2: I'd tell you my train was pretty full today with people.
Speaker 2: They were not coming into work. I think they were
Speaker 2: coming into shop a great Let's check in with Julie
Speaker 2: Van Allen. She's a chief revenue officer Rocketent. Julie, thanks
Speaker 2: so much for joining us here on Zoom. Here, you
Speaker 2: guys see kind of retail sales at the store level
Speaker 2: and you kind of aggregated it up to kind of
Speaker 2: some big macro call here. How do you think the
Speaker 2: holiday shopping season is going to unwind this year because
Speaker 2: there's probably there's some stress on the consumer out there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I got to tell you, guys, I am
Speaker 3: so excited with what I woke up to see today.
Speaker 3: From a trend standpoint on our site, what we're seeing
Speaker 3: is that this is I think the technical term has
Speaker 3: to be just a thoroughly bonkers year in terms of
Speaker 3: retailers and brands competing for consumer dollars in the term
Speaker 3: in the form of promotions on their own sites and
Speaker 3: then layering on cash back and other incentives and on
Speaker 3: the consumer front. Ready this morning, we'll see a significant
Speaker 3: increase in shopping trips year over year.
Speaker 4: Hey, Julie, just remind the world what Racketin does and
Speaker 4: how you guys, cause you've got a bunch of stores
Speaker 4: you log on write consumers and then get deals. Those
Speaker 4: stores pay you right for sending them shoppers. Just remind
Speaker 4: us and remind us how big your network is in
Speaker 4: terms of members.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have seventeen million shoppers shopping on the Racketen
Speaker 3: site with about four thousand partner stores. So those retailers
Speaker 3: and brands join racketin to attract the shoppers that are
Speaker 3: excited and rewarded to shop through Racketin's platform to get
Speaker 3: cash back on the stores that they love so much.
Speaker 4: So one of the things I wonder when I'm talking
Speaker 4: retail is, what do you compare what you're seeing today
Speaker 4: with Is it going back to twenty nineteen pre pandemic
Speaker 4: or is it from the peak kind of coming off
Speaker 4: the pandemic. Give us some perspective so that we get
Speaker 4: a real idea of how healthy the consumer is or
Speaker 4: there or not. Retailers are feeling some pain because they're
Speaker 4: offering higher incentives than they were before.
Speaker 3: It's a great question, and I think it comes down
Speaker 3: to it being a very different year this year than
Speaker 3: it has been for the last two because from a
Speaker 3: consumer standpoint, coming out of COVID, there were a lot
Speaker 3: of people who saved up dollars right So for the
Speaker 3: last couple of years, there was a push a pull
Speaker 3: forward of the holiday shopping season, where consumers were shopping
Speaker 3: starting in October for gifting and retailers met them where
Speaker 3: they were, and there was a spread of the amount
Speaker 3: of offers that were in market and discounts throughout the year.
Speaker 3: This year is a very different year because retailers knew
Speaker 3: that consumers had been patiently waiting given the different economic
Speaker 3: conditions coming into this year. So it's very very consolidated
Speaker 3: around Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and essentially really the next
Speaker 3: five days. So yeah, I mean, it's just a very
Speaker 3: different look and feel this year. That said, I think
Speaker 3: brands are always cognizant about profitability, and so while we
Speaker 3: know that we need to compete for the consumer dollars,
Speaker 3: especially in a year like this year, so everyone's going
Speaker 3: to be super promotional right now, the smart brands think
Speaker 3: about how to pivot and change that up a little
Speaker 3: bit as we get into December.
Speaker 2: Hey, Julie, is there any kind of go to category
Speaker 2: here or gift that is going to drive this year's
Speaker 2: or's something along electronics front?
Speaker 5: What are people buying?
Speaker 6: You're buying platform ugs, aren't you buying.
Speaker 5: Of course, right, that's the new thing. Sorry, I love
Speaker 5: an UG, that's what I want.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, I mean right now we have over eight
Speaker 3: hundred brands on our site offering twelve percent cash back
Speaker 3: on top of the amazing deals they're already offering. And
Speaker 3: I can tell you from categories that we're already seeing
Speaker 3: growth coming out of department stores. Is one, health and beauty.
Speaker 3: Big marketplaces, so think like Walmart and Target. And I
Speaker 3: think what you can tie that to is that the
Speaker 3: consumer isn't just looking for discretionary gifting spend, it's also
Speaker 3: how to get the best deals on essentials. Footwear to
Speaker 3: the ugs is up, and then poor retailers in the
Speaker 3: luxury space even versus yesterday, up pretty significantly, which shows
Speaker 3: you what we I think already knew, which is that
Speaker 3: consumers are waiting to make those big discretionary buys for
Speaker 3: when they know the discounts and the incentives will be highest.
Speaker 3: And then, probably most interestingly, the unconventional category of travel
Speaker 3: is up high, which again high price point consumers waiting
Speaker 3: for those deals.
Speaker 6: It feels like we're all waiting for discounts more now.
Speaker 5: Yeah, again, Paul, I think we've been trained that way.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but it felt like the retailer companies were in
Speaker 4: the driver's seat, Julie for a while. And it feels
Speaker 4: like it's been reversing because it feels like consumers are
Speaker 4: more and more pinch We had a great story about
Speaker 4: even those making like one hundred thousand dollars out, they're
Speaker 4: kind of trading down and being a lot more cautious
Speaker 4: when it comes to shopping. And I feel like so
Speaker 4: many retailers have come out right, Walmart and among them,
Speaker 4: but even you know, I feel like some higher end
Speaker 4: have run into some trouble here. So it does feel
Speaker 4: like increasingly all consumers are feeling a bit pinched, certainly.
Speaker 3: I mean core inflation, student loan debt, repayments, I mean,
Speaker 3: there's something affects everybody, right, and it just drives concerns.
Speaker 3: This year was definitely a year that we knew that
Speaker 3: consumers were holding on to their dollars. It's definitely different
Speaker 3: than the last couple of years. But that said, you know,
Speaker 3: it's not sustainable for retailers and brands to be this
Speaker 3: promotional all year. That's why we have the partners that
Speaker 3: we do, because things like cash back can be a
Speaker 3: great incentive for brands to help create rewards for shoppers
Speaker 3: to even pay full price as we exit this highly
Speaker 3: promotional period.
Speaker 2: Hey, Julie, when I ack my five hours of radio today,
Speaker 2: I will walk to Penn Station and I won't be
Speaker 2: on Fifth Avenue. I walk down Madison Avenue and I
Speaker 2: pass a lot of I pass by, I don't go in.
Speaker 2: I pass by a lot of luxury brand stores. How's
Speaker 2: luxury these days?
Speaker 3: Luxury is a really interesting category, and like I said,
Speaker 3: we see that up today. But I think once you
Speaker 3: dig a little bit deeper into the luxury shopper, the
Speaker 3: core luxury high end shoppers are not the ones that
Speaker 3: are driving growth right now from what we see. It's
Speaker 3: not to say that they won't come back and spend,
Speaker 3: but a lot of those super high end handbags are
Speaker 3: a little bit more expensive this year than they used
Speaker 3: to be. And I think what you see is a
Speaker 3: more aspirational shopper looking at buying or making these purchases
Speaker 3: that are an investment for them. So a younger, more
Speaker 3: aspirational shopper, which really creates an interesting pathway for these
Speaker 3: brands to welcome new and exciting shoppers to their brands
Speaker 3: buying the high end goods, but they're also carving off
Speaker 3: parts of their businesses like beauty to be more discount driven,
Speaker 3: to be more promotional in terms of price points, in
Speaker 3: order to usher the new shoppers their way.
Speaker 4: So, Julie, too early to kind of come out and say, right,
Speaker 4: this is going to be the winner for this holiday
Speaker 4: shopping season, because it sounds like from what you say,
Speaker 4: we're going to get a good feel of consumer shopping
Speaker 4: in the next week or so, and then it might
Speaker 4: trail off a little bit. So thirty seconds, who do
Speaker 4: you think is going to be the winner?
Speaker 3: I mean, everyone's going to be the winner if they
Speaker 3: know how to pivot. I think that's at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, We're going to see a tremendous amount
Speaker 3: of shopping happening over the next couple of days. But
Speaker 3: then what happens after that? Are there inventory gluts that
Speaker 3: need to be offloaded through incentives? Do we need to
Speaker 3: incentivize folks to get in store through buy online, pickup
Speaker 3: in store. It's all about reaction.
Speaker 2: Hi, Julie, thank you so much for joining us. Juli
Speaker 2: Van Allen, she's a chief revenue officer Racketon.
Speaker 7: You're listening to the team. Ken's her live program Bloomberg
Speaker 7: Markets weekdays at ten am Eastern on Bloomberg dot Com,
Speaker 7: the iHeartRadio app, and the Bloomberg Business App, or listen
Speaker 7: on demand wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4: Paul, you know, we talk so much about people continuing
Speaker 4: to spend on experiences rather than buy stuff, and I
Speaker 4: feel like our next guest has a great window into
Speaker 4: all of that. So Dexol Live it's the hospitality partner
Speaker 4: to Global Venues. They've had a lot going on this year,
Speaker 4: everything from hosting the Formula one Miami Grand Prix at
Speaker 4: hard Rocks Stadium, the twenty twenty three MLB All Star
Speaker 4: Game at Seattle's t Mobile Park, to events at convention centers,
Speaker 4: cultural attractions, and airport lounge business, which if you've been
Speaker 4: to an airport lounge, they are packed.
Speaker 5: Yep, they are all right.
Speaker 4: So let's get to it with us. As Blinda Oakley CEO,
Speaker 4: it's Adexhi Live joining us on zoom on this Friday.
Speaker 4: Great to have you here, Belinda. You know, your first
Speaker 4: year on the job, what's that been like?
Speaker 8: Oh hi everyone, Hi Carol, high Poul and happy Thanksgiving.
Speaker 8: You know, the first year has been a whirlwind, but
Speaker 8: what a great time to be in the live events business.
Speaker 8: I think, as you mentioned, the focus on experience continues
Speaker 8: to lead people back to those packed environments, those environments
Speaker 8: where you can do something a little different than how
Speaker 8: we used to spend our time. And to be in
Speaker 8: a birthseye seat for that is a true gift in
Speaker 8: an honor.
Speaker 2: So Blinda, I'm completely ignorant of your company, and you're
Speaker 2: part of the hospitality business.
Speaker 5: When I walk into a stadium.
Speaker 2: I don't know get beer, I just get my peerer,
Speaker 2: and I just assume they're employees of the team or
Speaker 2: of the I don't know what's you guys have four
Speaker 2: hundred thousand employees at fifty sites all over the world.
Speaker 2: Just amazing. Can you tell us about kind of coming
Speaker 2: out of the pandemic. What are you seeing in your business,
Speaker 2: because again, it seems like everybody just wants to get
Speaker 2: out and they've been getting out over the past couple
Speaker 2: of years and going to big events and maybe you know,
Speaker 2: ticking off bucket list items.
Speaker 5: What have you seen in your business?
Speaker 6: Yeah, look, you've said a few things there that I'll
Speaker 6: jump on.
Speaker 8: I think first and foremost, if you're going to a
Speaker 8: game and you're getting your beer and your hot dog
Speaker 8: and back to your seat, then that's what's supposed to happen. Yeah,
Speaker 8: I think you shouldn't spend too much time thinking about
Speaker 8: the magic behind the scenes that makes it all happen.
Speaker 8: But as you mentioned, we are fortunate. We have about
Speaker 8: twenty thousand associates just in the sports and leisure division
Speaker 8: across about one hundred and fifty venues just here in
Speaker 8: the US and Canada, and it takes a lot to
Speaker 8: make that magic happen, and in a way that as
Speaker 8: a fan, you get to focus on what you're.
Speaker 6: There to experience, and that food.
Speaker 8: And beverage just is an augmentation to a great service experience.
Speaker 8: But I think first and foremost, as you mentioned, the
Speaker 8: hospitality industry has changed greatly. Obviously through the pandemic we
Speaker 8: see we see a real shift in who is working
Speaker 8: in hospitality.
Speaker 6: Obviously, with the unemployment rate.
Speaker 8: Getting back to a lower level, the labor market is
Speaker 8: still tight and finding those folks who who have a
Speaker 8: love of being a part of live events is a
Speaker 8: different challenge than.
Speaker 6: What we're facing before COVID. I think in.
Speaker 8: Terms of what we're seeing from consumers. It's fascinating. Whether
Speaker 8: it's the pitch clock changes in MLB, whether it's the
Speaker 8: introduction of autonomous experiences where you can get your beer
Speaker 8: and your hot dog and sometimes not even speak to
Speaker 8: an individual. We are seeing the consumers still want to
Speaker 8: be back in those big live environments.
Speaker 6: They want to actually spend more when they're there.
Speaker 8: They want to get out of their seat more often
Speaker 8: because they trust that they can get back to their
Speaker 8: seat and not miss.
Speaker 6: A moment of the game.
Speaker 8: So certainly, I think we've seen all the trends of
Speaker 8: pre pandemic in terms of consumers wanting things faster, wanting
Speaker 8: to elevate their experience.
Speaker 6: We're just seeing it all moving at a more rapid pace.
Speaker 4: Well, And I'm curious about the labor components side of it,
Speaker 4: because you say it's still tight, although we're starting to
Speaker 4: see some signs of maybe a little bit softening. But
Speaker 4: I agree it's still a tight labor market. I increasingly
Speaker 4: on the retail.
Speaker 6: Side, if I'm shopping.
Speaker 4: More and more often, checking myself out, even taking off
Speaker 4: security tabs, what are you guys doing? Are you increasingly
Speaker 4: more pressure to automate things in your industry because you
Speaker 4: can't find those workers.
Speaker 6: Look, it's funny.
Speaker 8: I think there was a lot of fear, certainly a
Speaker 8: few years ago, that automizing the retail experience or the
Speaker 8: consumer experience was going.
Speaker 6: To take hospitality jobs away.
Speaker 8: But what's interesting is we are seeing we've got the
Speaker 8: same number of individuals employed. If it takes somewhere like
Speaker 8: the Mariners T Mobile Stadium in Seattle. We have four
Speaker 8: autonomous retail environments by Amazon just walk out, we have
Speaker 8: no we have the same number of.
Speaker 6: Employees because what people has shifted.
Speaker 8: I think while you're checking yourself out, the expectations of
Speaker 8: the level of service and hospitality in greeting, in going
Speaker 8: that little bit above and beyond to make sure you've
Speaker 8: had a great day, I think that that need has elevated.
Speaker 8: So we're seeing the type of labor need change. I
Speaker 8: think the days of you know, going through the checkout
Speaker 8: and not having any kind of interaction are well and
Speaker 8: truly over.
Speaker 6: That's what autonomous is for.
Speaker 8: But the spirit of service and hospitality that is still
Speaker 8: high demand and highly sought after in an employee base.
Speaker 2: Hey, well, lin, it just seems I'm not sure if
Speaker 2: it's just in the US, but certainly in the US
Speaker 2: it seems to be an arms race for these stadiums.
Speaker 2: The bigger and more luxurious and have more services, and
Speaker 2: it's not just the beer and a hot dog anymore.
Speaker 2: You can get all kinds of stuff there.
Speaker 6: How do you beating caviare exactly?
Speaker 5: How do you how do you keep up? Who kind
Speaker 5: of drives that? Is that you guys driving it?
Speaker 2: Or is that the owner of a franchise saying I
Speaker 2: need more, I need better.
Speaker 8: M Well, I think every owner of every franchise is
Speaker 8: saying I need more, I need better, because we're all
Speaker 8: fighting for the same share of mind. I think now
Speaker 8: that that's a really healthy level of I think it's
Speaker 8: a healthy paranoia to make sure that you are always
Speaker 8: trying to elevate, stay on top. We're very fortunate we
Speaker 8: have talented teams of chefs and operators in our venues.
Speaker 8: We also get the benefits, especially doing some of these
Speaker 8: really high end clubs and restaurants, which, of course as
Speaker 8: the as the experience is elevated from hot dogs and
Speaker 8: burgers to as you mentioned, champagne and caviat and all
Speaker 8: the rest of the local favorites.
Speaker 6: We do work with a lot of restaurant tour partners.
Speaker 8: So I think ultimately who drives that constant pushing of
Speaker 8: the envelope is the fan you look at, whether it's
Speaker 8: the food Network, today's consumer is just so they have
Speaker 8: such a higher expectation of what wows. So you have
Speaker 8: to be constantly going a little bit outside of the norm.
Speaker 8: Whether that is you know, again you're still going to
Speaker 8: get your traditional favorites, but whether it's sweet Tea fried
Speaker 8: Chicken in Indianapolis or Jambalaya in New Orleans, you know
Speaker 8: you have to bring that local flavor in. But the
Speaker 8: one thing I would say is what we have to
Speaker 8: be careful about as we can continue to elevate and
Speaker 8: expand the experience is the heart of consumers coming to
Speaker 8: these events is not based on elevation. Is it is
Speaker 8: the experience we all remember growing up. So having those
Speaker 8: game day favorites, having them affordable for everyone to keep
Speaker 8: bringing their kids and their grandkids to these experiences, you know,
Speaker 8: it just means we have more tears. I would say,
Speaker 8: of what you can experience. If you want a high
Speaker 8: end experience, you got it. If you want to come
Speaker 8: for a beer and a hot dog, it won't break
Speaker 8: the bank. You got that, Hey, thirty seconds.
Speaker 4: So you've got to feel inflationary pressures, whether it's on
Speaker 4: wages or food costs. I mean you are construction costs?
Speaker 5: How much?
Speaker 6: How difficult is that? And again just about thirty seconds.
Speaker 6: Yeah absolutely, I mean you've hit it.
Speaker 8: Concrete is still through the roof, but truckings have obviously
Speaker 8: been mitigated.
Speaker 6: You know, inflation. We are certainly in deflation.
Speaker 8: So I think in terms of what have we done,
Speaker 8: we have learned to be much better at working in.
Speaker 6: This environment menu engineering.
Speaker 8: We have a twenty billion dollar purchasing network as an organization,
Speaker 8: so we get to take advantage of that scale.
Speaker 6: But I think this inflationary environment, it's going to keep
Speaker 6: switching where the pressure is. But our job and so
Speaker 6: Live's job is to be better than the best at that.
Speaker 6: And thanks to us yall, we're able.
Speaker 4: To looking forward to experiencing some events, certainly in the
Speaker 4: New York. Blinda Oerkley, CEO is SADEXO Live. Thank you
Speaker 4: so much, really appreciate it.
Speaker 7: You're listening to the tape cats Are Live program Bloomberg
Speaker 7: Markets weekdays at ten am Eastern on Bloomberg Radio. The
Speaker 7: tune in app, Bloomberg dot Com and the Bloomberg Business app.
Speaker 7: You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our
Speaker 7: flagship New York station Just say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we get into the you said, another huge sports
Speaker 5: weekend here.
Speaker 2: We've got college football, NFL, professional basketball, means a little bit.
Speaker 5: Everything's coming together.
Speaker 2: And one of the biggest areas of sports in this
Speaker 2: country over the last several years has been sportsmbling, and
Speaker 2: the amount of money that is now being wagered is
Speaker 2: just extraordinary. Seems like all of the leagues, after decades
Speaker 2: and decades of trying to keep sports betting out of
Speaker 2: their business, are now opening arms and welcoming them in.
Speaker 2: One of the players there is Charles Gillespie. He's the
Speaker 2: CEO of Gambling dot Com. Unfortunately he's also graduated in
Speaker 2: the University of North Carolina, so that's a check mark
Speaker 2: against him. To crowd exactly, Hey, Charles, talk to us
Speaker 2: about just how your business has evolved over the last
Speaker 2: three or four years. It's just almost night and day.
Speaker 9: It really is.
Speaker 10: You know, as many of the listeners will know, the
Speaker 10: Supreme Court decision in twenty eighteen really upended the world
Speaker 10: of sports betting in the United States. We've been running
Speaker 10: this business for going on twenty years, but mainly in Europe,
Speaker 10: in the UK, Ireland and a number of other European markets,
Speaker 10: and we had to turn the whole ship around and
Speaker 10: pointed at the United States. In twenty eighteen nineteen, we
Speaker 10: had just a couple of million dollars in revenue in
Speaker 10: North America. And this year we'll have our guidances to
Speaker 10: exceed one hundred million in revenue for the whole group,
Speaker 10: and we expect an absolute majority of that to come
Speaker 10: from North America. So, you know, it's completely transformed our business,
Speaker 10: and the US is now the center at gravity for
Speaker 10: the global online gambling industry.
Speaker 4: You know, we talked earlier about people want to experience thing,
Speaker 4: but people do also want to gamble increasingly. Hey, tell
Speaker 4: us about your business, because from what I understand, I
Speaker 4: just want to understand exactly what the business model is.
Speaker 4: I mean, you guys are provider digital marketing services for
Speaker 4: the online gambling industry. What exactly does that mean laid
Speaker 4: out for us all?
Speaker 10: So we do the same thing for online sports betting
Speaker 10: and online casinos that essentially like a hotels dot Com
Speaker 10: does for an online hotel. You know, if you're going
Speaker 10: to travel to Paris, you're not going to go to
Speaker 10: ten different Parisian hotel websites to find a tell You're
Speaker 10: going to go to a website that has all that
Speaker 10: information in one place. So, for example, if you want
Speaker 10: to bet on sports in New York, there's a variety
Speaker 10: of different options. They have different strengths, they have different
Speaker 10: bonus offers, they have different levels of customer support, et cetera,
Speaker 10: et cetera. So you come to a website like gambling
Speaker 10: dot Com, but we we run over fifty websites. We've
Speaker 10: also got Bookies dot Com, casinos dot Com, and a
Speaker 10: number of others, and there we will show you all
Speaker 10: the information that would be relevant to you as a
Speaker 10: sports vetter or online casino customer and help you make
Speaker 10: the best decision for you in terms of where to play.
Speaker 10: So then people would leave one of our websites, they'll
Speaker 10: go to the online gambling operator's website and there are
Speaker 10: our clients, and they pay us on a performance basis
Speaker 10: for the number of new depositing customers that we can
Speaker 10: send to them from our portfolio of websites.
Speaker 2: You know, I never thought I'd see this, Charles, but
Speaker 2: Mickey Mouse is now in the sports betting business. Espn
Speaker 2: bet just launched here. What does that mean for the
Speaker 2: industry and what does it mean for you guys.
Speaker 10: Up until they launched, you know, I think it was
Speaker 10: a lot of wait and see and speculation about whether
Speaker 10: or not this was going to be as big of
Speaker 10: a deal as everyone's making it out to be.
Speaker 9: And since they have launched and.
Speaker 10: They are a client of ours, we are helping them
Speaker 10: acquire customers. The initial numbers have been spectacular, unlike anything
Speaker 10: we've ever seen before. So what's clear to us at
Speaker 10: this point is that espn bet will will no doubt
Speaker 10: be able to acquire customers. And the next question is
Speaker 10: will they be able to retain those customers. Will they
Speaker 10: stick around, will they like the products? Will they get
Speaker 10: the right sort of CRM engagement to make sure that
Speaker 10: they're not just there to kick the tires once, but
Speaker 10: that they actually become long term customers. And if they
Speaker 10: do that, they will be a major force to be
Speaker 10: reckoned with in the United States.
Speaker 4: I'm thinking if I was a gambling AI chatbot, I
Speaker 4: would want to be linked in to you because you
Speaker 4: probably have a lot of data and information on gambling trends.
Speaker 4: Give me an idea first of all, of like, what
Speaker 4: is it that people really really want to bet on?
Speaker 4: Where's the most activity seemingly happening or at least the
Speaker 4: inquiries based on what you guys are seeing. Give me
Speaker 4: an idea, and I'm curious too, take it to the
Speaker 4: next level generative AI.
Speaker 6: How it plays into your business.
Speaker 10: Yeah, well, people bet on the biggest sports in America. Obviously,
Speaker 10: you know, it's NFL and it's NBA. For an NFL event,
Speaker 10: you'll get more, you know, betting on the match than
Speaker 10: you would on anything else. But you know, there's a
Speaker 10: lot more NBA games and there's a lot more MLB
Speaker 10: games than there are NFL games, So in aggregate that
Speaker 10: can that can total to more than than NFL. But
Speaker 10: you know, for on a kind of per match event,
Speaker 10: you'll see the most handle on that. Generative AI for
Speaker 10: us has been fantastic. You know, we've used it internally
Speaker 10: to streamline a lot of our internal process in terms
Speaker 10: of producing content. You know, we employ hundreds of people,
Speaker 10: uh internally and and and you know hundreds more externally
Speaker 10: to make sure that we have the best content on
Speaker 10: the Internet when it comes to anything related to gambling.
Speaker 10: You know, we produce an enormous amount of original content,
Speaker 10: but uh, you know, the the generative AI can be
Speaker 10: helpful at the margins to to you know, buff and
Speaker 10: polish and check things in addition to what we do
Speaker 10: with our editors. But on the development side, in terms
Speaker 10: of just making software, it's also been hugely helpful. You know,
Speaker 10: a developer with these co pilot tools now is in
Speaker 10: order of magnitude, more productive than they were previously. And
Speaker 10: and you know that has all sorts of implications and
Speaker 10: it'll allows us to be more ambitious in terms of
Speaker 10: the features and development plans that we can take on.
Speaker 5: Hey, Charles, thank you very much for joining us. Really
Speaker 5: appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Charles Gillespie, CEO of gambling dot com. That is a
Speaker 2: Nastak traded company, Gambas and boy is there and you
Speaker 2: can check that out. And I'm just shocked at how
Speaker 2: quickly this sports betting has just exploded. Maybe you shouldn't
Speaker 2: have been, because it's always been an active, you know,
Speaker 2: underground kind of.
Speaker 5: Business with absolutely huge numbers.
Speaker 2: But you're seeing all these leagues that publicly publicly said, oh,
Speaker 2: will never associate ourselves with this sort kind.
Speaker 6: Of find it talking a little bit.
Speaker 4: I don't knows a little bit. Yeah, kind of interesting
Speaker 4: to just see it. I should put out that that stock,
Speaker 4: by the way, saying about twenty percent. When it reported
Speaker 4: earnings in November sixteenth, they put out their full year guidance.
Speaker 4: They affirmed it, but I think analysts think it might
Speaker 4: be on the low end, so maybe people looking for more.
Speaker 7: You're listening to the tape catch a live program Bloomberg
Speaker 7: Markets weekdays at ten am on Bloomberg Radio, the tune
Speaker 7: in app, Bloomberg dot Com, and the Bloomberg Business app.
Speaker 7: You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our
Speaker 7: flagship New York station, Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Speaker 6: We're going to stick with the retail sector.
Speaker 4: I'm looking at our blog, our live blog that's on
Speaker 4: the Bloomberg terminal.
Speaker 5: In person.
Speaker 4: Black Friday shopping appears relatively muted this year. Online shopping up,
Speaker 4: with many sales starting days or weeks ago, Consumers looking
Speaker 4: for deals as they grapple with elevated inflation. So that's
Speaker 4: kind of our backdrop as we head to Tom mcgeeh
Speaker 4: CEO on president at ICSC. It's the industry group that,
Speaker 4: as its website reminds, US, represents marketplaces and spaces where
Speaker 4: people shop, dyne, workplay, and gather.
Speaker 6: So they do it all.
Speaker 4: So think shopping centers and malls and mixed use centers
Speaker 4: and street level storefronts. Tom is on Zoom from Los Angeles. Hey, Tom,
Speaker 4: Great to be talking with you again. I'm here with
Speaker 4: Paul Sweeney.
Speaker 5: What are you hearing?
Speaker 11: Yeah?
Speaker 5: What are you happy?
Speaker 4: Thanksgiving? Happy holidays? What are you hearing as you do
Speaker 4: channel checks about what's going on in these mixed use
Speaker 4: spaces and at malls and shopping centers.
Speaker 9: I expect this to be a strong Thanksgiving weekend.
Speaker 11: The you know, our expectations will be one hundred and
Speaker 11: thirty billion dollars spent this weekend.
Speaker 9: That's about four percent more than last year.
Speaker 11: You know, consumers continue to be concerned around inflation.
Speaker 9: I was listening to your conversation with Charlie.
Speaker 11: I think he's very reflective of consumer mindset one in
Speaker 11: focusing upon food and beverage and experiences. I mean that
Speaker 11: that will be up over the holiday season almost eight percent,
Speaker 11: seven point six percent. But looking at discounts this There's
Speaker 11: going to be a lot of promotions this weekend, and
Speaker 11: I think that will drive a lot of traffic, both
Speaker 11: in person and online. People with the concern, you know,
Speaker 11: with the concern, with the concern around pricing and inflation,
Speaker 11: you know, retailers are going to lean in. This will
Speaker 11: be a heavy promotion year. As a consumers are price sensitive.
Speaker 2: Hey exactly, Hey, Tom, I know you guys se do
Speaker 2: a big survey here about what people are going to
Speaker 2: be doing over this Thanksgiving weekend and the holidays. Are
Speaker 2: people going to be going to stores? I mean people
Speaker 2: still do that or is it just point and click now?
Speaker 9: People, of course people go to stores.
Speaker 11: If people want to go to stores, the communities would
Speaker 11: not flourish around the country. So we represent everything, as
Speaker 11: Carol's introduction suggested, street retail in every neighborhood across the
Speaker 11: United States to large regional malls.
Speaker 9: And so people will go on shopping.
Speaker 11: Ninety percent of consumers will hit a store over this
Speaker 11: holiday season. I think discount department stores will clearly be
Speaker 11: the biggest winners over the holiday because of the concern
Speaker 11: around pricing. We've seen that trend over the course of
Speaker 11: the year, and gift cards will be you know, highly
Speaker 11: highly sought after. You know, the big tread and retail,
Speaker 11: as we've talked about the past, is the integration between
Speaker 11: the physical and digital world. So you will retailers are
Speaker 11: somewhat agnostic as to where you buy the product, you
Speaker 11: where you initiate the transaction. They would, however, prefer you
Speaker 11: go to the store to pick it up. That's the
Speaker 11: most profit effective way for them to serve their consumer,
Speaker 11: and consumers are you know, focused upon efficiency and so
Speaker 11: you're really seeing those retailers that are particularly in proximity
Speaker 11: to where people live, do quite well. And you know,
Speaker 11: occupancy is super high right now as retailers are using
Speaker 11: their stores for both traditional shopping but also as a
Speaker 11: little mini fulfillment centers.
Speaker 4: Tom, I know we talked earlier this year. I'm just
Speaker 4: curious and just remind our audience. I mean, are we're back.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to figure out because we talked about demise
Speaker 4: of them.
Speaker 6: All for so long. So where are we are?
Speaker 4: What's the what's the uh you know data point that
Speaker 4: you kind of compare where today is to where it was.
Speaker 4: That's important and gives us kind of some smart perspective.
Speaker 11: Look, I think the narrative around the demise of the
Speaker 11: mall has been in existence for forty years. I mean,
Speaker 11: the people have talked about the mall dying, and here
Speaker 11: we are today, and principally there's about the same number
Speaker 11: of malls in the United States as there was a
Speaker 11: decade ago.
Speaker 9: There are clearly some thriving malls. There's clearly some malls
Speaker 9: that are struggling.
Speaker 11: But you know, and that is such an iconic part
Speaker 11: of people's perspective of retail, but it's a relatively small
Speaker 11: percentage of the total retail square footage in the United States.
Speaker 11: That said, occupanceeing malls across the entire sector is in
Speaker 11: the mid eighty percent. Class A malls, high end malls.
Speaker 9: Are doing much much better than that.
Speaker 11: And then open air retail, you know, everything from grocery
Speaker 11: anchored retail in suburban America to Target and Costco and
Speaker 11: Walmart anchored retail, that's in the mid to high ninety percent.
Speaker 9: And so physical retail.
Speaker 11: There has been no really new supply put on the
Speaker 11: MA market since the Great Financial Crisis, and yet retail
Speaker 11: sales have almost.
Speaker 9: Doubled over that period of time.
Speaker 11: And so you know, there's there's really a lack of
Speaker 11: supply in the market for the demand for physical space
Speaker 11: that retailers want, but clearly open air retail in proximity
Speaker 11: to where people live is particularly strong right.
Speaker 2: Now, Tom, are there any hot categories of purchases this
Speaker 2: season or maybe products that are kind of getting the
Speaker 2: attention of retailers.
Speaker 9: Well, obviously it's the holiday season.
Speaker 11: So I think that you know, toys and electronics will
Speaker 11: always be will always be, you know.
Speaker 9: In vogue. But I think the category.
Speaker 11: That's going to do particularly well this the part of
Speaker 11: retail that's going to go do particularly well is discount.
Speaker 11: You know, discount retail is going to do well because
Speaker 11: consumers are very price conscious and people do you know,
Speaker 11: it's hard, as you're, as Charlie suggested, to know exactly
Speaker 11: what to buy, even when it's somebody you've known for
Speaker 11: three decades. And so I think gift cards are often,
Speaker 11: you know, very very are quite frankly the most popular
Speaker 11: gift category because people want to give the recipient the
Speaker 11: flexibility to buy what they want.
Speaker 4: Well, apparently, if you've got young kids in your life,
Speaker 4: the Squish mellow Squish mallow, a plush stuff animal our
Speaker 4: Live retail Sales blog. Apparently at a Virginia Walmart Charlotteessvale,
Speaker 4: three customers asked about the five dollars squishmllow, Am I
Speaker 4: saying it right? In a matter of minutes. Apparently they've
Speaker 4: sold out and it's just kind of this squishy little pillow.
Speaker 11: I don't know.
Speaker 4: That seems to be what is interesting. I do wonder
Speaker 4: about the toy retailers. Right, there's so much you can
Speaker 4: buy online here. What are you hearing about that sector specifically?
Speaker 9: Well, I think you're right.
Speaker 11: I think that, you know, I think the toy the
Speaker 11: toy sector has been you know, it's been disrupted for
Speaker 11: the last twenty years or so, right in multiple dimensions,
Speaker 11: one online, but also back to discount retailers, discount department stories.
Speaker 11: I mean, obviously they've grown out there their toy space,
Speaker 11: amount of space devoted to toys, and so a toy
Speaker 11: specific retailer is going to be challenged because they're getting
Speaker 11: a competition in multiple fronts. That said, you know, specialty
Speaker 11: retail if it's unique and it provides an experience, you know,
Speaker 11: could do quite well.
Speaker 9: But kind of the mass merchant toy retailer is really not.
Speaker 11: You know, it's not the same as it was twenty
Speaker 11: years ago or even forty years ago when we.
Speaker 4: Were growing I remember going to the Seers and it
Speaker 4: was like the Barbie isle and it was like who
Speaker 4: you walk down, it was pretty cool stuff. It's a
Speaker 4: very different environment today, Paul.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Hey, Tom, if I actually find myself in a
Speaker 2: store and it's a very low probability that that's going
Speaker 2: to happen. Am I going to find stuff on the shelves?
Speaker 2: Hell's the inventory, supply chain all that stuff?
Speaker 9: Yeah, of course, of course. You well, I think you
Speaker 9: know one thing, it's just implicit in your question.
Speaker 11: I don't know exactly where you live, Paul, but I
Speaker 11: think that it's important to recognize that New York City
Speaker 11: and Manhattan is its own ecosystem, and there is clearly
Speaker 11: a lot of people that's chopped online in Manhattan for
Speaker 11: a variety of reasons.
Speaker 9: Yeah, but when you get off the island and you
Speaker 9: go to the rest of America.
Speaker 11: People do go to stores, and that is still by
Speaker 11: far the most popular way to shop in suburban America.
Speaker 11: And of course, remember what's happened in the course of
Speaker 11: the pandemic is people have moved back to the suburbs.
Speaker 11: Suburban retail, suburban real estate is back in vogue, and
Speaker 11: so people will go out and masses to the stores
Speaker 11: this weekend. And the supply chain issues that we're experienced
Speaker 11: at the height of the pandemic have really retailers have
Speaker 11: kind of managed their way through that.
Speaker 9: So I don't think that's going to be an issue.
Speaker 4: Good, right, Yeah, interesting, right, Yeah, absolutely, it's true that
Speaker 4: migration right post pandemic of people back out to the burbs,
Speaker 4: that's a good thing for a lot of retail, traditional retail.
Speaker 4: Hey Tom McGee, thank you so much, CEO and president
Speaker 4: of ICSSE joining us on Zoom from Los Angeles. Happy,
Speaker 4: Happy post Thanksgiving, and I'm sure we're going to be
Speaker 4: checking in with him throughout the holiday season.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, So I can tell you that Short Hills Mall
Speaker 2: will be today and they will be lined up on
Speaker 2: Route twenty four waiting to get in.
Speaker 6: For the line is like outside to exit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just extraordinary and it's a great great mom
Speaker 2: people still love going to that.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Markets podcasts. You can
Speaker 1: subscribe and listen to interviews at Apple Podcasts or whatever.
Speaker 1: Podcast platform you prefer. I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Matt Miller nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 2: And I'm fall Sweeney.
Speaker 5: I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney.
Speaker 2: Before the podcast, you can always catch us worldwide at
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Radio