Strategy – Page 5 – FairOdds Network

September 8, 2023

LeoVegas breaks ground with BetMGM UK

The news that BetMGM would be launching in the UK gave its gambling market a much-needed shake. But it was the fact that LeoVegas, not Entain, would be MGM’s launch partner that really set the conversation alight. Gustaf Hagman, CEO of LeoVegas, believes his company is more than ready to take on the challenge.

To say the journey to the launch of BetMGM UK has been complex would be an understatement.

To the uninitiated, an established US-facing brand – a joint venture of two industry giants – has managed to implant itself into the UK market.

But peeling back the layers reveals a different story. BetMGM’s US offering is a joint venture shared between MGM and Entain. But the launch of BetMGM UK doesn’t include Entain at all.

Instead LeoVegas, which was acquired by MGM Resorts last year for $604m, will power BetMGM’s new UK platform. This means that BetMGM UK will be competing directly against Entain’s UK brands, which include the likes of Ladbrokes, Coral and Gala.

Despite the enormi..

September 7, 2023

Net profit up 56.4% at STS in H1

Net profit at Polish sports betting operator STS Holding grew 56.4% to PLN97m (£18.1m/€21.1m/$22.6m) in the first half of 2023, a period in which it agreed to be acquired by Entain CEE for £750.0m.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the half-year rose by 34.1% to PLN157m.

The news that Entain CEE – Entain’s Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) venture – would acquire Poland’s leading sportsbook operator came in June, after Mateusz Juroszek, chief executive of STS, and his father Zbigniew, entered into an agreement to accept Entain CEE’s acquisition offer.

Entain CEE paid PLN24.80 per STS share. This put the business at an equity value of £750m and an enterprise value of an estimated £690m. The deal closed on 24 August, after STS shareholders – holding 155,591,656 in STS shares – backed the deal.

On the half-year, Mateusz Juroszek said STS focused on optimising its operations during the six months, adding that he projects increased player ..

September 1, 2023

Fanatics completes PointsBet deal in eight US states

Fanatics Betting and Gaming (FBG) has closed on the first eight states in its previously announced acquisition of PointsBet’s US business.

Following regulatory approvals, the deal has now completed in major markets such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania. FBG has also completed in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

PointsBet confirmed that the Fanatics subsidiary has now paid the initial instalment of $175m of the $225m headline purchase price. The price was agreed in June 2023.

From today, customers in each of the eight states will see PointsBet rebranded to “PointsBet, a Fanatics Experience”. The rebrand will complete in Indiana and Illinois in the coming months.

PointsBet USA will continue to operate in Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New York and Ohio. This will be until Fanatics is able to close on selected states individually.

“We are excited about what we are building at Fanatics Betting and Gaming and this acquisition accelerates our plans,” ..

September 1, 2023

Ontario: The state of play

More than a year on from the regulation of the Ontario gaming sector, gambling businesses have each adapted to the market in their own way. But how can operators stand out from the crowd in North America’s most competitive market?

With every gold rush comes the prospectors.

In the 16 months following the regulation of the gaming sector in Ontario, gambling operators of all shapes and sizes have thrown the dice to get a slice of the biggest and most dynamic market in North America.

Those involved range from former grey market players trying to make the regulated transition, the big European operators, media brands which have grown a betting wing and land-based companies trying to get in on the action – plus everything in between.

The landscape

Ontario has become an incredibly competitive market, with iGaming Ontario recording 46 companies operating 71 brands as of Q1 2023.

However, one trend to note is its diversity. This is especially striking when compared to the US which, butt..

August 25, 2023

FansUnite expects to save $7.1m from DragonBet migration

FansUnite Entertainment has reached an agreement with UK-based sportsbook DragonBet to migrate off its Chameleon Gaming platform as part of a strategy to streamline its business operations.

DragonBet will migrate off the white label betting platform on or around 3 September. This is despite the Welsh-facing brand having only joined the platform last year under a deal with FansUnite.

The migration comes after FansUnite in May agreed to sell the Chameleon source code to Betr. Under the deal, Betr is paying a total of $7.4 to take ownership of the platform.

FansUnite said the combined impact of the sale and DragonBet migration will result in approximately $7.1m (£5.6m/€6.6m) in annualised cost savings.

These savings include reductions in salary and selling, general and administrative costs. The business said these will be reflected in its financial results once the wind-up of operations of the Chameleon platform completes.

FansUnite added that it expects to generate positive cash flo..

August 25, 2023

Entain CEE adds another piece to the puzzle with STS

Entain CEE’s £750m acquisition of STS Holdings gives Entain access to Central and Eastern Europe's (CEE) largest economy, Poland. For Mikolaj Cymerman, head of corporate development at Entain CEE, this is just the first step.

The deal for the Polish sportsbook market leader marks the second acquisition made by Entain CEE, a joint venture between Entain and investment management company Emma Capital.

It’s also a major milestone for the two parties. Getting a foot in the door will allow Entain to make serious inroads in the CEE market, one already somewhat carved out by its first acquisition – of Croatia’s SuperSport – last year.

Mikolaj cymerman, head of corporate development, Entain CEE

“Once SuperSport happened, people were thinking ‘OK, so they’ve bought SuperSport and that’s it’,” Cymerman explains. “But now with STS, this kind of structure starts to unravel and people are seeing that this wasn’t a one-trick pony.”

It was this first acquisition that set the wheels in motio..

August 22, 2023

CDI closes deal for historical racing specialist Exacta

Horse racing operator Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) has closed its acquisition of historical horse racing provider Exacta Systems.

The $250m deal allows Churchill Downs to realise significant and immediate synergies, the operator explained.

Its tracks in Virginia, Colonial Downs and Rosie’s Gaming Emporium, already house Exacta historical racing machines. This means it takes charge of the full value chain.

More historical horse racing machines (HHRMs) will be rolled out across its other properties.

Churchill Downs flexes B2B muscle through acquisition

Exacta will fold into CDI’s B2B subsidiary TwinSpires, providing content to its current third-party clients in Kentucky, Wyoming and New Hampshire.

This arm, formerly CDI’s operating business repurposed as a B2B proposition, already powers DraftKings’ horse racing app DK Horse.

August 11, 2023

Dearth of igaming legislation prompts major WynnBet roll-back

Wynn Resorts blames a dearth of igaming legislation and marketing costs for a major reduction in its online brand WynnBet’s US footprint.

Wynn will cease operations in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virgina as soon as possible.

Operations in New York and Michigan remain under review. Only Nevada and Massachusetts operations are guaranteed to continue – states where it operates land-based properties.

“Better uses of capital deployment”

There are better uses of capital deployment for Wynn shareholders than the high levels of marketing spend required for online sports betting, chief financial officer Julie Cameron-Doe explained.

“While we believe in the long-term prospects of igaming, the dearth of igaming legislation and the presence of numerous other investment opportunities available to us around the globe have led us to the decision to curtail our capital investment in WynnBet to focus primarily on those states where we maintain..

August 9, 2023

ESPN Bet to launch in November

Jay Snowden, president and CEO of Penn Entertainment, confirmed that ESPN Bet will go live in November this year.

Penn and sports broadcaster ESPN’s transformative $1.5bn deal will consist of Penn relaunching its existing Barstool Sportsbook as ESPN Bet.

Off the back of the deal Penn is divesting its Barstool Sports sportsbook brand and selling it back to Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool.

Snowden confirmed the month for launch on Penn’s earnings call today, following the publication of its second quarter results.

When the deal was announced yesterday, Penn said the launch had been set for “the fall”, with no specific details as to when.

On the earnings call, Snowden skipped around the month with “sometime this fall” and “certainly before Thanksgiving” before landing on November.

Snowden defended the timing of the launch amid claims it would come too late in the NFL season.

“I think our launch in November is good, because it won’t get lost at the beginning of football season,”..

August 9, 2023

Jackson highlights scale, product as profit drivers for Flutter

Peter Jackson, CEO of leading online gaming conglomerate Flutter Entertainment, highlighted the business’ scale and subsequent ability to invest in its products as being behind its crossing of the profitability threshold.

In H1 2023, the Flutter reported profitability on both a US and group-wide basis. In the company’s earnings call, Jackson highlighted the business had previously expected 2023 to be the year in which the threshold was met.

“I think it’s important we remember the context a few years ago,” Jackson said. “We knew this year would be the tipping point, we reached that milestone earlier because the business is bigger than we anticipated.

“We knew this year would be profitable, we’ve proved the model works, we will continue to acquire and invest in as many companies as we possibly can.”

Jackson emphasises the importance of scale

The executive emphasised Flutter’s size, revenue and market share as the business retained its title as the largest online gaming business in t..

July 31, 2023

Fox Bet to close by 31 August

Flutter Entertainment and Fox Corporation have announced that their Fox Bet sports betting joint venture will close next month.

A phased closure of the Fox Bet operations will take place from today (31 July) until 31 August.

Flutter has been operating the brand as part of The Stars Group US, along with the US-facing operations of the PokerStars business.

It was confirmed that Flutter will retain ownership of both PokerStars and FanDuel Group. However, Fox will retain future use of the Fox and Fox Bet brands. These include the Fox Bet Super 6 prediction game, with a revamped version of this still due to go live this summer.

In addition, Fox, which holds a 2.5% stake in Flutter, will retain its option to acquire 18.6% of FanDuel.

Fox Bet’s short history

Fox Bet was born in May 2019 when Fox linked up with The Stars Group to launch a new sports betting service in the US. This was prior to Flutter acquiring The Stars Group in May of the following year.

At the time, it was planned fo..

July 17, 2023

Entain to acquire Angstrom Sports in £200m deal

Entain will acquire sports modelling, forecasting and analytics specialist Angstrom Sports in a deal worth up to £203m.

Under the deal, Entain will pay an initial £81.0m, as well as £122.0m in additional payments over a three-year period, totaling £203.0m.

Angstrom utilises simulation-based predictive modelling to offer a range of pricing and forecasting capabilities to sportsbook clients.

Primarily serving the US market, Angstrom’s offering covers the most popular competitions and leagues in the country.

The acquisition will allow Entain to offer a full suite of end-to-end analytics, risk and pricing capabilities for its US operations, namely BetMGM, which it runs as a joint venture with MGM Resorts International.

This will improve customers’ US sports betting experience including more betting opportunities, optimised parlay and in-play products, it added.

The acquisition is expected to complete during Q3 2023.

Unlocking new US opportunities

“We’re delighted Angstrom will b..

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Tag: Strategy