Every week, CasinoBeats breaks down the numbers behind some of the industry’s most fascinating stories. A number of financial breakdowns, including the likes of MGM Resorts, Flutter Entertainment and Bragg, M&A manoeuvres that saw purchases made by Gaming Innovation Group, Better Collective and Sega Sammy Creation, and another cyberattack all feature in our latest headline round-up.
2.03
Flutter Entertainment is anticipating a secondary US listing to come to fruition during the first half of 2024, as the gambling conglomerate once again waxed lyrical of its US standing in a third quarter trading update.
This came as the company reported third quarter revenue of £2.03bn, up 13 per cent year-on-year from £1.89, driven by a gaming division that is “performing exceptionally well” in recording a 22 per cent uptick to £914m (2022: £748m). Adverse sports results brought a two per cent drag, as revenue closed at £1.12bn (2022: £1.14bn).
The listing issue, which has been much discussed throughout the year, has seen a draft registration statement be submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. This comes ahead of the New York Stock Exchange becoming the choice of a future trading venue of Flutter’s ordinary shares, which is said to have followed “a competitive tender process”.
To coincide with this future move, the decision has also been made to cancel its listing on Euronext Dublin, which Flutter noted is expected to take effect simultaneously with, or shortly prior to, implementation of its US manoeuvre.
665,000
Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands become the latest casino resort to fall victim to a data security breach, which has affected approximately 665,000 non-casino rewards programme members.
The Las Vegas Sands owned property confirmed that the incident concerned unauthorised third-party access being gained on October 19-20, 2023, to some of its customers’ loyalty programme membership data.
As a result of an internal investigation, the property has also stressed that it has not discovered evidence that the third party responsible for the breach has misused the data to cause harm to customers.
In addition, it was noted that membership data from the Sands Rewards Club casino rewards programme was not affected.
35
Gaming Innovation Group cited lofty North American ambitions as a prime factor in the group re-entering the M&A arena, with the Malta headquartered firm’s latest purchase being that of Time2Play Media, formerly known as KaFe Rocks.
The €35m acquisition is charged with cementing a “position as the dominant lead generator within the lucrative online casino market”, as well as accelerating its rate of expansion across the aforementioned jurisdiction.
The company’s GiG Media division is aiming to “drive substantial growth” for its new asset, in addition to leveraging its proprietary media and marketing technology and driving “solid cost synergies” to maximise profitability.
100
MGM reported that it witnessed a “strong start” following a cybersecurity issue that affected the company earlier in the year, with records hit in Las Vegas “despite the disruption across our portfolio”.
This followed MGM confirming that it was also the victim of a data breach, alongside Caesars, with a regulatory filing by the operator subsequently noting expectations of a negative impact of approximately $100m to adjusted property EBITDA across Las Vegas strip resorts and regional operations.
This update came as the casino and entertainment operator reported “great momentum across our businesses” following the third quarter, which included optimism on the group’s pipeline of development opportunities. This includes New York and Japan, as well as its international digital business and BetMGM.
176
Better Collective secured its second largest transaction to date after rolling out a definitive agreement to acquire Playmaker Capital in a €176m transaction.
The deal, which comes in behind only May 2021’s $240m Action Network purchase, sees the Copenhagen headquartered group aim “to take market leadership in South America” and strengthen its position across North American markets.
The acquisition, which is expected to close before the end of 2024’s first quarter, has been hailed as “transformational” and “important milestone” in the Better Collective journey by Co-Founder and CEO Jesper Søgaard.
6.73
Licensed gambling companies in Sweden recorded a drop in revenue of less than one percentage point year-on-year through 2023’s third quarter after the country’s ecosystem recorded a figure of SEK 6.73bn (2022: SEK 6.77bn). However, this represents the best three month performance of the year.
This figure represents a slight nudge of less than half of a per cent from the SEK 6.7bn (£499.8m) witnessed through Q1. For the year-to-date, overall revenue is also down less than half a percentage point after closing at SEK 20.02bn (2022 SEK 20.09bn).
50
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen pulled back the curtain on plans for an $8bn casino and entertainment resort project after being long mooted to hold a firm interest in participating for one of three New York licences up for grabs.
This centres around 50 acres of developable land surrounding the MLB Franchise’s Citi Field stadium, with a Hard Rock International partnership and community first approach central themes of the proposal.
In addition to hosting over 500 meetings with community leaders and holding a number of sessions united thousands of guests, Cohen is vowing to deliver 15,000 “good-paying, permanent and construction union jobs”. A priority for hiring will be afforded to local residents.
1.97
GAN announced a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by Sega Sammy Creation, a subsidiary of entertainment and resorts business Sega Sammy Holdings.
This is subject to the approval of GAN shareholders who will gather ‘no later than March 31, 2024,’ to vote on the acquisition. Each of GAN’s issued shares will be converted into the right to receive cash at $1.97 per share.
This figure will see the acquisition valued at $107.6m, and is equivalent to a premium of 121 per cent over the closing price of GAN shares on November 7.
2
Bragg Gaming Group stressed confidence that it has the right strategies in place to ensure business momentum is maintained moving forward, with full-year guidance maintained following the third quarter.
Matevž Mazij, who replaced Yaniv Sherman as CEO a little over two months ago, stressed that a variety of initiatives and disciplined expense management “combined to drive growth” in the third quarter.
Touching upon global markets, it was stressed that due to an acceleration in the availability of exclusive third-party content, increased penetration is expected through the fourth quarter and beyond.
