Churchill Downs Inc (CHDN) 2013 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Churchill Downs, Incorporated Second Quarter Results Conference Call. (Operator instructions) I would now like to introduce your host for today's program, Ms. Courtney Norris, Director of Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Kimmy. Good morning, and welcome to this Churchill Downs Incorporated conference call to review the Company's results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2013. The results were released yesterday afternoon in a news release that has been covered by the financial media. A copy of this release announcing results and any other financial and statistical information about the period to be presented in this conference call, including any information required by Regulation G, is available at the section of the Company's website titled, News, located at ChurchillDownsIncorporated.com, as well as in the website's Investors section.

Let me also note that a news release was issued advising of the accessibility of this conference call on a listen-only basis via phone and over the Internet.

As we begin, let me express that some statements made during this call will be forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements that include projections, expectations or beliefs about future events or results, or otherwise are not statements of historical fact. The actual performance of the Company may differ materially from what is projected in such forward-looking statements. Investors should refer to its statements included in reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission for discussion of additional information concerning factors that could cause our actual results of operations to differ materially from the forward-looking statements made in this call.

The information being provided today is of this date only and Churchill Downs, Incorporated expressly disclaims any obligation to release publicly any updates or revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect any changes in expectations. I will now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Bob Evans.

Thanks, Courtney. Good morning everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Here's a quick summary of the second quarter of 2013. Net revenues hit a second quarter record of $283.8 million, up 5% over last year. Net earnings of $50.3 million were also a second quarter record, up 4% over 2012.

Starting this quarter, we will report adjusted EBITDA. Our CFO, Bill Mudd, will take you through the details of that in just a minute. Adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter was $103.9 million, up 9% or $8.9 million on a year-over-year basis. On an adjusted EBITDA basis, racing, excluding Oaks and Derby Week, was off about $2.7 million as the result of a generally tough industry, a very rainy jazz fest at fairgrounds, and the so-called race dates dispute involving our Calder Racetrack in South Florida.

Gaming, excluding our Riverwalk property that we didn't own in last year's second quarter, and our online segments, we're essentially flat. Gaming's performance reflected a sluggish economy. Calder, Fairground slots and video poker, and Riverwalk were all up. Harlow's was the only property that declined.

Online's [tough] performance was due primarily to being cut off from taking twinspires.com wagers in Illinois. You'll recall that the authorizing legislation expired on December 31 of last year, and the legislature and governor didn't get the new bill signed until June 7. If we exclude Illinois in both years, twinspires.com handle was up 7% in the second quarter, exceeding the US thoroughbred industry handle growth of 1% as reported by Equibase.com.

Riverwalk, which you'll recall we closed that deal last October, added $4.8 million, and Oaks and Derby Week, despite miserable weather, was up $5.8 million to another adjusted EBITDA record, the third straight year of at least a $5 million increase and up $21 million over the last four years. Everything else, corporate costs, United Tote, et cetera, were negative $86,000, a $1.1 million improvement over last year's second quarter. So we're very happy with the quarter's results, although we, like everyone else, could certainly use some real economic growth.

A few other matters. We closed on our acquisition of the Oxford Casino in Maine on July 17, four months or so ahead of schedule. I'd like to thank the Maine Gaming Control Board for their timely work on our license application. We were at the property on July 19 and had the chance to the meet the leadership team and a number of the rest of the team members, really a great group. We think there are more business opportunities for us at the property and we intend to make a $3.2 million investment to expand the gaming floor and to add more slot machines and high limit table games. We don't yet have a final schedule for completing that work, but it will occur during the fall and winter's off-peak season.

Miami Valley Gaming, our 50-50 joint venture project north of Cincinnati is progressing on budget and ahead of schedule. We now hope to open the property in early to mid-December, about three months or so ahead of plan. Almost exactly one year ago, we announced that we would build and open the 300 ultra-luxury seat mansion at Churchill Downs Mansion, in time for the 2013 Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby. That project included not only the mansion, but also the raising of the Paddock Pavilion building, relocating and expanding the Gold Room, which serves our wagering VIPs, the construction of a new media center now known as the Parlay, and construction of the 218-seat Paddock Plaza Balcony. We quickly sold the mansion and Paddock Plaza Balcony, and our financial returns on this initiative were excellent, as was our customer's response.

Tuesday of this week, we announced that we would construct another new area, the Grandstand Terrace and Rooftop Garden, in time for 2014 Kentucky Oaks and Derby next May. This $14.5 million project will add 51,000 square feet of new space and (inaudible) into the grandstand, overlooking the Kentucky Derby starting gate. This project will add 2,400 new reserve seats, a 4% increase in reserve seating, and will new restrooms, new wagering windows, and new concession areas, serving approximately 20,400 seats or about 37% of our total reserve seating areas.

Finally, in South Florida the racing-dates dispute is affecting Calder's financial performance. I find it disappointing that we haven't been able to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement there, but we will continue to try. It's very difficult to predict exactly what will happen here since this is a whole new ballgame. For example, while Gulfstream Park is running on top of us, that's hurting us right now, but when we are racing this December into next April, it will be all upside for us, since historically we haven't run those dates, but we will starting this year and next. Just what the next effect will be is hard to say. It may very well take a couple of years, maybe more, before this is resolved and the final outcome is known.

So good quarter and we continue to build our growth portfolio. Let me turn this over to our CFO, Bill Mudd, who will take you through the details, after which we'll try to answer your questions. Bill?

Thanks Bob and good morning, everyone. As Bob mentioned, we started reporting adjusted EBITDA as a performance measure of our operating results in the second quarter. We did so to be more consistent with other gaming companies and to provide a cleaner view of our performance by discussing certain items, such as insurance recoveries, pre-opening expenses, non-recurring proceeds from horseracing equity trust funds, and non-cash share-based compensation, which fluctuates from period to period. A full description of this measurement can be found in the Form 10-Q we filed yesterday.

Unless otherwise noted, my comments will focus on adjusted EBITDA when discussing the segment information. Overall, it was a very good quarter, setting a number of new second quarter records. Total revenues were up 5% to $283.8 million, a new record. Adjusted EBITDA was up 9% to $103.9 million, another new record. And that income from continuing operations was $50.3 million, up 4%, also a new record.

Year to date cash from operating activities was $100 million, up 4% from $96 million in the prior year. Year to date capital spending is $23.8 million, $9.2 million for maintenance purposes and $14.6 million related to new projects, primarily for the Churchill Downs Oaks and Derby venues and the Harlow's renovation.

We spent $12.5 million funding our share of the Miami Valley Gaming Development in Ohio in the first half of 2013, bringing our investment to date in the joint venture to $32.4 million. We are making good progress on the build out and are on track for an early to mid-December opening.

We amended our revolving credit facility in May, increasing our existing borrowing capacity to $500 million, while reducing the pricing grid and including two-tiered leverage capability. This will provide us with flexibility as we continue to grow the Company.

Debt is now classified as long-term on our balance sheet and ended the quarter at $153 million, down from approximately $210 million at year-end 2012. This balance does not include the $160 million acquisition of Oxford Casino, which closed July 17. Even with the Oxford acquisition, our balance sheet remains in great shape with approximately 1.5 turns of leverage.

Now, let's take a look at our segments. Our racing segment had a strong quarter, despite a couple of headwinds, with adjusted EBITDA up $3.1 million or 5%. Kentucky Oaks and Derby Week set another record with adjusted EBITDA up $5.8 million over the prior year on the introduction of the Mansion, the Paddock Plaza Balcony, and upgraded first turn offering, in addition to higher ticket pricing and higher sponsorship revenues. Partially offsetting this record performance was a decline in adjusted EBITDA at Calder Racecourse, due primarily to the loss of Florida hosting revenue.

Let me take a minute to explain hosting revenues. In Florida, a thoroughbred racetrack conducting a live racing meet has control over hosting out of state signals and receives a commission on wagers placed at other racetracks throughout the state. When multiple racetracks operate concurrently, each track can be the host track for the out of state signals. On May 7, all of Florida's three racetracks began claiming they were host tracks on a year-round basis. This resulted in a $5.1 million reduction in revenues, and a $1.5 million reduction in adjusted EBITDA at our Calder facility.

It is our belief that the statutes require three days of live racing per week to be the host track. We have filed a petition to clarify the rules and are awaiting a decision from the division of administrative hearings. If we are unsuccessful in our appeal, we will lose some of the host fee revenues we previously received when we conducted live racing, but will gain host fee revenues during the period when we previously did not race. This means our July to November results will be worse than previous years, while our December to April results will improve.

The remaining $0.7 million decrease in Calder Racing profitability is driven by a horseman dispute that prevented us from exporting the signal to out of state locations for four days, as well as lower on-track wagering. Additionally, our fairgrounds adjusted EBITDA declined by approximately $0.8 million due to the timing of the Louisiana Derby, which occurred on April 1 of last year, and lower Jazz Fest results, which were affected by inclement weather.

Our gaming segment had a very good quarter, with all of our locations except Harlow's showing revenue growth year-over-year. Riverwalk is a primary driver of total segment growth, as we acquired the property in October of last year. The property grew net gaming revenue by 1.9% year-over-year on a comparable basis, which we think is exceptional considering the Mississippi River counties continued economic weakness, and delivered $4.8 million in adjusted EBITDA.

Harlow's was not as successful overcoming the challenging economy. Revenues declined 5% from prior year, leading to an adjusted EBITDA reduction of $1 million. Renovations completed in January of this year have so far not offset a tough economy. Our Calder Casino revenues increased 7%, driving the adjusted EBITDA up by $500,000 as a result of focused marketing efforts and the closure of internet cafes in the state. Our Louisiana slots and video poker operations also posted revenue gains of 4% and 5% respectively. Unfortunately, adjusted EBITDA was flat to prior year as revenue gains were offset by higher property taxes in slots and higher marketing expenses in our video poker operation.

Our online business did well, despite not being able to take bets from Illinois residents the majority of the quarter, including on the Kentucky Oaks and Derby, and the Preakness Stakes. Fortunately, we were able to resume accepting wagers on June 7, just before the Belmont Stakes, on the passage of enabling legislation. Handle for the quarter increased by 1.3% over the prior year to approximately $255 million, slightly outperforming total industry handle, which increased 1% according to figures published by Equibase.com.

Excluding Illinois wagering for both periods, TwinSpires' handle improved by 7.2%, outperforming the industry by 6.2% for the three-month period. Adjusted EBITDA increased 2% or $0.3 million above prior year, as losses from Illinois wagering of $0.6 million were offset by gains in our high volume wagering platform, Velocity, and better operating performance in our HRTV joint venture. Investments in our Luckity product were consistent with prior year at $0.7 million.

Now, I'd like to cover a few of the items below adjusted EBITDA. Insurance recoveries net of losses decreased $5 million as a result of 2012's gains resulting from the 2011 flood damage at Harlow's. Illinois Horseracing Equity Trust Funds increased by $0.3 million, reflecting the final disbursement related to the original nine riverboat licenses. In July, we received the final disbursement of horseracing equity trust funds associated with the tenth Illinois riverboat license. Arlington Racetrack's share of these proceeds totaled $4.3 million and will be recorded as a gain in our third quarter results.

Share-based compensation increased $1.5 million as a result of a new executive long-term incentive plan that went into effect March 21, 2013. There are a couple of points I want to make on this line item. First, under the long-term incentive plan that expired at the end of 2012, participants earned incentive compensation based on achieving certain EBITDA performance. That equity is accrued over one to three years, depending on when the target is achieved. As such, our second quarter contained expenses associated both with the old plan and the new one.

The new four-year long-term incentive plan has two components, restricted stock awards and stock price vesting restricted stock. Approximately 20% of the shares are restricted stock, which is accrued ratably over the [vesting] period. The unrecognized compensation expense associated with this portion of the plan is $4.5 million and will be recognized over the next 34 months.

Approximately 80% of the incentive stock award are at risk, invest in 25% increments based on our future closing stock price achieving certain levels for 20 consecutive days. The expense for these shares is accrued based on actuarial assessment, using stock price triggers, the risk free rate, and the five-year stock price volatility among other factors. The unrecognized expense associated with this portion of the plan is $10.9 million and will be recognized over a weighted average service period of 11 months. The point of this is that while this is a four-year long-term incentive plan, the vast majority of the expense occurs in the first 14 months.

Finally, reopening costs associated with our Miami Valley Gaming investment totaled $500,000 in the quarter. This will increase in the third and fourth quarter as we enter the final months prior to our December opening.

With that, I'll turn it over to Bob who will open the call up for questions. Bob?

Thanks, Bill. Kate, do we have any questions?

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Amit Kapoor with Gabelli and Company. Your line is open.

Thank you. Good morning, Bob and Bill. Can you please remind us and I guess update us on the status of the Illinois Gaming legislation post the passage in the Senate? It's currently pending and how long is the legislation active, and any prospects that you guys see from -- on the ground? Thank you.

Sure, Amit, it's Bill Carstanjen. Those are always tough questions. You stated the facts correctly, but in terms of predicting of what happens next, I think it's anybody's guess. So we continue to be really focused. We have a core team that works on these issues every day and we'll all just have to stay tuned.

Thank you. Is there any -- in terms of the governor's office, is there any indication of (inaudible) that the bill passes the House, what kind of reception it might receive at the end of the line?

As often is the case with a gaming bill, it often wraps up with other issues going on in the state. In Illinois, one of the most important issues has been pension reform. So I think it's fair to say we feel like our prospects are tied in part to how that develops within the legislature and with the governor. So we'll continue to monitor that and we'll plan our hand at if it's there to be played. But I think we'll have to watch that get -- the pension reform situation in Illinois, I think that will have to make some progress before we do.

Wonderful. Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Steve Altebrando with Sidoti and Company. Your line is open.

Good morning. Can you give a sense of how ADW is performing in Illinois since being turned back on?

Bill, that's probably yours.

Sure. We were, of course, really alarmed by the prospect of ADW being cut off in Illinois just under the theory that it's never a good idea to take away from the customer something they like doing. They can always find other thing to do with their time and money. So we were pretty pleasantly surprised when the new legislation passed with how quickly the ADW bounced back. It did bounce back very, very strongly and generally, we've been pleased. It hasn't come back all the way to what it was consistently before the law cut it off, but generally, we've made a lot of progress and continue to make progress rebuilding that customer.

Okay, that's helpful. And just want to clarify something in the script, Bill. The $1.5 million decline in the EBITDA in Calder, is that all since the dispute began in mid-May.

Correct. It was actually early May. I think it was like May 7 or 8.

Okay, and then just lastly, how do you think about the return potential of the most recent Churchill expansion versus what you saw at the Mansion?

Well, this is always one of those forward-looking statements that we hate to make, but I think you would expect something fairly similar. Same property, same event, same -- creating more seating. So we may be wrong. The future is a tricky place, but I would expect something similar.

Okay, thanks so much.

Our next question comes from the line of Cameron McKnight with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning. A question for Bob or Bill. Could you comment on the Cincinnati development and the Cincinnati market specifically, especially following some of Penn's comments earlier this week?

We kind of thought we might get that question, so Mr. Carstanjen is ready for you.

Well, that's a situation and a jurisdiction we've been monitoring pretty closely, including the commentary of our soon to be competitors in the market. So we've had some concerns with what people are saying about the market and the level of free play we're seeing. But in our case, we had already downsized our investment about 7% from our original plans and we reduced the number of machines that we're planning on starting with to about 1,600. So we feel like we're in a pretty good place based on the environment now. We'll keep our eye on it. We're of course planning on opening later this year as opposed to one of the properties Penn is going to open in the Dayton market, which is sometime after that.

But right now, based on the environment that we see and the factors that we see, we feel pretty good. We very much like where this property is. It's right off I-75, nicely positioned between Cincinnati and Dayton, able to grab out of both those markets. So really good question, stuff that we talk about and focus on every day. But right now, we think we right sized the investment and right sized the number of machines for the opening.

Okay, great. Thanks. And then as a follow-on, can you guys talk to general trends across the original properties and assets. I think it's fair to say that we've been seeing some slightly more mixed economic data across the board, and in this quarter, we've seen earnings reports that have, for the most part, been a little bit mixed. So if you could talk to general customer trends that would be very helpful.

Yes, this is Bill. Cameron, I would say that it's hard to paint each market with the same brush. Our -- so let's go to each market. Mississippi has been a very tough economy, generally, both in Vicksburg as well as Greenville. And we continue to see that last quarter and as well as in July. I think the July numbers will prove to be kind of similar to the second quarter and total better than June.

Down in Louisiana, that's kind of a GDP 4%, 2%, 3%, 4% type of economy. Our property seems to do very well there. It continues to grow quarter after quarter. In Florida, I think we're benefiting from the closure of the internet cafes. So we're seeing revenue increase there. And both because the economy looks better, but I think also because of the internet cafes going away. So July is actually looking even better than our second quarter.

And then in Maine, that's a market that is relatively new and we continue to pull from a bigger radius around the property. So that economy seems to be doing very well too.

Great. Thanks. And then finally, just on the acquisition front, can you talk generally in terms of I mean you've clearly looked at a lot of assets over the past two years. Can you talk generally to the type of assets and the markets that you're interested in, particularly as Penn gets closer to its split into a REIT and operating company?

Cameron, we've said before and it continues to be the case that we're interested in newer properties as opposed to older properties. We like properties that are in gaming friendly, business friendly states, and we like properties that we believe, it may not be true, but we believe have some protection against competitive inroads. Those are the three things we've looked at. We've looked at some big ones. We've looked at some small ones, but those are the three primary criteria.

Great. Thanks very much.

Our next question comes from the line of Justin Sebastiano with Brean Capital. Your line is open.

Good morning guys. So you talked about the internet cafe ban and how much do you think that added to EBITDA at Calder?

Well, it's very difficult to separate what the internet cafe ban generated versus marketing performance generated. The market, I mean we were up 7% revenue. I think the market was up somewhere close to that. So how much of that was economic, general economic conditions improving that's hard to put a number on that one as well.

Okay. And you're going to be online in Ohio soon enough. There's internet cafes there and there's talk of banning them there. Where is the state on that and what is your participating in that lobbying effort?

First of all, I would say that there's a bill passed and the governor signed it that limited the ability for internet cafes to pay out anything more than a $10 jackpot. There's a petition going around that would put a referendum on the 2014 ballot to recall that law. And if they're successful then I believe they would be able to continue to operate under the old regulations until that referendum occurs. And the reason for that is it wasn't passed with emergency clause, that bill wasn't.

So there's two things that could happen. One is the legislature could pass the bill with an emergency clause, which would kind of mute the effect of getting that referendum. Or they could wait until the referendum, it goes to referendum and then recall that or beat that recall. So those are the two paths. We worked with a group up there to make sure that we do what's right for the casino industry.

Bill, you want to make some comments?

I'd only add that it seems pretty clear to us that internet cafes aren't supposed to be operational in Ohio. This is a series of tactics and maneuvering to keep the operations open by the folks that own them for as long as possible. So we're going to birddog that along with some of the other gaming companies that are in the jurisdiction. We're going to birddog that until the law is followed and it works the way it's supposed to work, and those are shut down. That may take some time. That's the hardest part about it to predict.

Okay, and there was a recent report out that the Ohio Roundtable, their fight against VLTs in Ohio is going to be taken up by the Ohio Supreme Court. Can you give us your thoughts on that and if there's -- is this purely just a technical sort of move by them to get heard or do you think this actually has some legs?

Hi, this is Alan Tse. There's another case that's going in Ohio that's ahead of this case called the Ohio Jobs Act that's basically the same issue, whether these folks have standing to sue. But I think the courts are going to go look through that and rule on that. But understand that this is a case that's on whether they have standing to sue. So even if they win then we go back to the merits of the case. So there's a lot of things I think you'll (inaudible) a technical challenge here. So there's a lot of things to be played out on that and I think at the end of the day the courts are going to rule on this, and then if for some reason that they win then the merits of the case will go. But the legislature has passed the laws and they're challenging on a technicality.

Okay. Yes, just based on the amount of investment that the companies that are going to be operating Racinos or that already are, trying to -- it seems counterintuitive that they would actually rule in their favor. But stranger things have happened, I guess.

As far as Harlow's, how much of the decline, and maybe this is tough to estimate, but could you kind of give us ballpark of how much of the decline in EBITDA there was from promotions from I assume the Tunica market, and how much was from the disruption on the [slough] floor that you guys experienced during the quarter as you were looking for the right mix? And I presume it's because the different [denoms] of the games.

Well, let me start with that and maybe Bill will jump in as well. We've been stable in terms of our market share within the Greenville market. So it's not been the case that it's been our competitor in the market that's really taken it out of us. What's happened so far is there's been some wagering that's disappeared from the market. We do have some thoughts based on some of the information we know that some of those customers have headed up towards Tunica, but also it's a function of the economy.

In terms of what we're doing about it, we're pleased with the state of our facility, with some of the improvements we've made to it outside of the gaming floor. But on the gaming floor itself, we think now we've pieced together enough data and information to make some changes to improve our competitive position. So you'll see us do that over the short-term. We'll add some games. We'll bring in some games from some of the other properties that we think might perform better in the Harlow's market. And we'll otherwise tweak all the levers that are there for us on the gaming floor to see if we can drive some improvement off that.

Does that answer your question?

Yes, it sounds like, if I'm hearing you correctly, you think you have found the right mix. There might be perhaps a little bit more tinkering to do this quarter, but ultimately that disruption you guys quoted in the release or in the queue, maybe the worst of it is behind you. Is that fair to say?

I think it's fair to say that we know what we want to change and hopefully what we change will drive better performance. We do have a plan. We are in the process of implementing it and then we'll have to measure the results once we do that.

And has Tunica pulled back on the promotions to your zip codes or is that still kind of where we saw it in Q2?

Well, first of all I don't think that was a primary driver of the revenue decline. I think it was primarily the fact that the economy was poor because I don't think you see anyone in Tunica outperforming either. All of the Mississippi counties reported declines in revenue over that last three months, from what we could tell.

So there's an exception or two like Riverwalk that have increases in revenue. So I don't think that, to Bill's point, we've lost share, at least not to anyone within Tunica. So I think now it's just a matter of we get enough cost out to offset the decline in revenue, and with the tax rates being what they are in Mississippi, that's a tough thing to do.

Right, but just so I'm clear, Tunica then, are you seeing the same level of promotions out of that market based on the intelligence you gathered from your customers and just elsewhere in the market?

Yes, we don't think it's increased versus the first quarter.

Got you. Okay. And then just lastly, Bill, you guys talked about the increase in the stock-based comp and that data was very helpful. Clearly, it's being front end loaded and it's going to be that way it seems over the next four quarters or so. Is this a good run rate, that $6 million number? Is that -- based on the numbers you gave us and the math that we'll do, is that sort of a good run rate at least for the next couple quarters on the stock-based comp?

That, what is it, about $6.2 million in this quarter, that's high. It declines and the reason why it declines, it doesn't decline because of the new plan. The new plan cost us about $3.7 million in the quarter. That's a good run rate for that portion of the plan. The old [LTIP] plan as well as the compensation plan that Bob and other executives have been on that aren't on the long-term incentive plan costs about $2.5 million. And a number of those awards, especially in the LTIP program, are vesting each quarter. So that is declining rather rapidly. And that portion, for example, between the first quarter and second quarter dropped almost $500,000. And it will probably continue to drop, maybe not quite $500,000, but close to it in the next couple quarters until it will be completely done -- a huge part of it will be done by the end of this year and there will be a small portion that will bleed off through the end of next year.

Okay, very helpful. Thank you very much guys.

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Greg Klein with Imperial Capital. Your line is open.

Hi, thanks. Just two quick questions for you guys. One, with the issue that you were seeing in Harlow's, have you seen anything similar to that at Riverwalk or is it more specific to that casino? And then the question is a little bit more bigger picture. With NBC Sports paying up to get the NASCAR rights away from ESPN and then Fox Sports paying up for the Big East Basketball, I was wondering if you could see any -- with all three of these sports networks going after content and demand, how you think that could have any impact on your business. Thank you.

Greg, I'll take the first question, it's Bill, and then Bob will take the second question. There's pressure up and down the Mississippi River counties in Mississippi so it's not unique to Greenville. I think you can also see it in Tunica and you can see it in the Vicksburg market. I do think that it's been a little worse in Greenville than the other river county regions. Our Riverwalk property is a strong property. The Vicksburg market wasn't down as much, I believe, in real strong property on the upswing. So we managed it well. Greenville, a little bit tougher economy, as Bill might have alluded to earlier. So a little more challenging and we're focused not only on that market itself, but pushing the Harlow's marketing reach beyond the immediate counties up into Arkansas and a little bit further away to try to pull some people in from there to bump up our run rate.

The other point I would make is that Harlow's has the biggest market share in that market. So they have less ability to grab market share from competitors, whereas Riverwalk has a much, much bigger competitor and we have the ability to grab share from them. So Riverwalk has a little bit more ability to offset general economic declines than our Harlow's property does.

And Greg, on the TV front, we pay attention to all those deals, as you might guess. Our current deal with NBC has two more derbies to run, so as far as after the 2015 Kentucky Derby. And I've observed that the viewership of the Derby has increased in the last year pretty significantly. I think we're the second highest viewership in about 20 years give or take about a few years there. So the product looks pretty good and the market seems to be pretty strong sports content, but it won't really get addressed for a couple more years. So just put that in your thinking.

Great. One last quick question before I let you go. I see that you didn't repurchase any shares in the past quarter. Just any thoughts on that? Will you be -- do you expect to purchase anymore going forward or is this just an opportunistic type thing?

We haven't disclosed the circumstances under which we repurchase shares, but those remain in effect and if the opportunity presents itself, we will do so.

Okay, great. Thank you.

You're welcome. Anyone else?

I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.

All right, well thanks very much for joining us. As I said earlier, we feel like it was a pretty good quarter and our growth portfolio got a little bit stronger. On a personal basis, I'm working on writing and producing a Broadway musical to be tilted the earnings call, which I think will be a huge hit. And some of your questions today gave me a few days for our closing song, which of course will be called Q&A. So work on that little bit more. When we talk again the fall, maybe we've got a few more ideas that I can work into my script. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participating in today's conference. This does conclude the program and you may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.