Month: January 2022

The merger agreement will see Enjoy remain as the surviving company, with its shareholders retaining 36% of the shares in the new business. Dreams executives will own the remainder of shares.

The new company will look to diversify its portfolio across South America, opening restaurants, hotels and event centres in cities in Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Panama and Colombia as well as Chile.

The deal is expected to be concluded in the next 12 months, subject to regulatory approval in Chile and other affected countries.

Dreams CEO Claudio Fischer said: “The new company will bring together all the experience of both groups and a financial strength that will allow it to face the new challenges that the impact of the pandemic and the development of new technologies will bring to the gaming and entertainment industry in Latin America.”

“The combination of Dreams and Enjoy will solidify a Chilean company’s leadership position in the Latin American casino industry, ” added Enjoy CEO Henry Comber.

Chile recently reported record figures for gaming revenue and tax contributions for the month of October 2021.

Revenue for the 12 months to 31 December is expected to amount to between $258.6m (£190.0m/€228.1m) and $261.0m, meaning an increase of between 54.9% and 56.3%, PlayAGS said in a preliminary results posting. 

PlayAGS said electronic gaming machines (EGM) would remain its primary source of revenue, with revenue from this area of the business having an expected range of $237.0m to $239.0m, compared to $151.8m in 2020.

Table product revenue is set to reach between $11.7m and $11.9m, both of which would be higher than $8.0m in the previous year, while interactive revenue is forecast to increase from $7.2m to between $9.9m and $10.1m.

PlayAGS did not publish a full financial breakdown at this stage but did state that it expects adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBTIDA) to be in the range of $121.7m to $123.8m, compared to $71.7m in 2020.

Based on expected expenses for the full year, PlayAGS added that net loss should amount to between $19.2m and $24.8m, with this year’s loss being 4.4 times shorter than the $85.4m loss posted in 2020.

Looking at the fourth quarter, revenue is set to increase by between 46.8% and 51.9% year-on-year, with an expected range of $68.4m to $70.8m.

EGM revenue should reach between $63.0n and $65.0m, while table products revenue has a range of $3.0m to $3.2m, and interactive revenue $2.4m to $2.6m.

Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter should range between $30.7m and $32.8m, both up from $21.3m in 2020, while net loss has an expected range of $6.1m to $11.6m, compared to $17.2m in the previous year.

“Our preliminary fourth quarter 2021 financial results further reflect the operating momentum we are witnessing across all three segments of our business,” PlayAGS president and chief executive David Lopez said.

“I continue to believe we have the best line up of new products in our company’s history and am excited about the opportunities that lie ahead.”

Meanwhile, PlayAGS set out plans to explore a refinancing of its outstanding revolving credit facility and term loan credit facilities. 

The refinancing transaction could include increasing the size of the provider’s revolving credit facility, extending its debt maturities and reducing its borrowing costs. 

PlayAGS said it could also look to use a material amount of cash on its balance sheet that could exceed $50m in connection with refinancing.

Bell is currently non-executive chairman of XLMedia and will step down from this role in order to take up the position with Codere.

He will also leave his role as an independent director at Rank Group in order to fully devote his time to Codere. 

Bell spent almost two decades with Hilton Group/Ladbrokes, having joined the business in 1991. He was appointed to the board of directors in 2001 before going on to become CEO of Ladbrokes in 2006 following the sale of the Hilton Hotels division, remaining in the role until 2010.

Since 2009, Bell has held a number of other senior non-executive roles, including chairman of Game Group and Technfinancials, senior independent director of Quintain Estates and Development, and non-executive Spirit Pub Company, and Gaming Realms.

Bell also currently serves as non-executive chair of Team17 Group, OnTheMarket and a non-executive director of The Royal Airforce Charitable Trust.

“Codere, has demonstrated over the past 40 years its fundamental strength, versatility and leadership,” Bell said. “It is exciting to be a part of this project and promote this new stage that the company has initiated, in its way back to a growth path and consolidation as a leading multinational in the private gambling industry. 

“I am truly honoured for the trust placed in me and committed to the creation of value after this difficult period. The company has a management team and talent that will undoubtedly encourage its promising potential.”

Speaking about Bell’s departure from XLMedia, its chief executive Stuart Simms said: “We are very grateful to Chris for his exceptional service to XLMedia. I would like to personally thank him for his practical support and wise counsel. 

“Chris has been very supportive as we have sought to restructure to become more agile and align the business with new growth markets – an initiative we will complete during the first half of this year – as well as integrating three hugely successful US acquisitions, which we believe will be pivotal to our long-term success.”

The appointment remains subject to approval at a shareholders’ general meeting on 7 February, during which the new-look group will complete the construction of its board of directors.

Codere was taken over by creditors in November last year, following a debt-for-equity agreement struck in April as the previous business struggled to pay its mounting debts. The business was transferred to Codere New Topco SA, a holding company in which the bondholders have a 95% stake.

This also saw the business undergo a corporate reorganisation through the creation of four companies in Luxembourg: Codere New Topco, Codere New Midco Sàrl, Codere New Holdco S.A. and Codere Luxembourg 3 Sàrl. 

Under the deal, McClatchy will have access to Gambling.com Group’s proprietary data science platform, sports betting content team and expertise in how to monetise online sports betting traffic.

Gambling.com Group will help McClatchy leverage its audience reach and provide content to capture and monetise high-intent traffic.

McClatchy has operations in 29 markets across the US and counts newspaper titles the Miami Herald, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Kansas City Star, Charlotte Observer, News and Observer, Lexington Herald-Leader and Sacramento Bee among its publications.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Player spending in the state reached $86.4m (£63.5m/€76.2m) in December, up 67.4% from $51.6m in the same month of 2020. This was also 2.9% higher than November 2021, but 12.0% off the $98.2m record set in October last year.

DraftKings’ mobile sportsbook accounted for the majority of wagers placed in December, with consumers spending a total of $65.6m online. A further $20.9m was wagered at the operator’s three retail betting facilities in New Hampshire.

Gross gaming revenue, after winnings were paid out to players, reached $2.6m, which was 42.2% lower than $4.5m in December of 2020 and 58.1% down from the record $6.2m in November 2021.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

As part of New York’s state budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year, Governor Kathy Hochul released some early data on sports wagering in the state to demonstrate its expected tax impact.

After four operators – DraftKings, FanDuel, Caesars and Rush Street Interactive – launched online sports betting on 8 January, players wagered $150m in the opening weekend of activity. In total, there were more than 650,000 active player accounts.

While the state did not reveal how much revenue was made in the opening weekend, it said it expects to bring in $249m on sports betting taxes and licence fees for the current fiscal year, which ends on 31 March. Of this total, $200m comes from the initial licence fees and the remainder from taxes.

The state then expects tax revenue of $357m in the 2022-23 fiscal year, $465m in 2023-24, $493m in 2024-25, $509m in 2025-26 and $518m in 2026-27.

With New York’s sports betting tax set at 51% – the highest of any multi-operator jurisdiction in the US – this would mean that revenue is expected to reach around $1.02bn at maturity.

Although four operators launched on the opening weekend, a total of nine were granted licences to do so as part of New York’s bidding process. After the initial weekend of wagering, Entain-MGM joint venture BetMGM was also cleared to launch its online product in the state.

MV Werften filed for insolvency on January 10, bringing about HK$2.77bn ($355.6m/€310.2m/£259.2m) in default debts.

This stemmed from MV Werften’s failure to obtain €1.35bn in funding to manufacture Genting Hong Kong’s Global One cruise liner.

Since this filing, Genting Hong Kong has sought alternative forms of liquidation, including a USD$88m backstop from the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

This application was rejected on January 17. The week before, the company declared that there was “no guarantee” it could meet the financial obligations resulting from the insolvency if the drawdown was rejected.

Yesterday (January 18) Genting Hong Kong announced that it would “potentially” file for liquidation at the court of Bermuda later that day.

Today (January 19) the company declared that it filed a petition for the winding up of its business, along with a summons seeking joint provisional liquidators Mr. Edward Simon Middleton and Ms. Wing Sze Tiffany Wong of Alvarez and Marsal and Mr. Edward Alexander Niles Whittaker of R&H Services.

Genting Hong Kong also sought an order from Bermuda Court to appoint the liquidators to aid in the company’s financial recovery. A hearing for this is to take place in Bermuda Court on January 20.

In a statement Genting Hong Kong described the appointment of the joint liquidators as “essential”, adding that they could “maximise the chance of success of the financial restructuring”.

The company also provided further details on the resignations of non-executive directors Mr. Alan Howard Smith, Mr. Lam Wai Hon Ambrose and Mr. Justin Tan Wah Joo, which were announced yesterday.

Further to yesterday’s announcement the resignees have also stepped down from the company board. This is in response to the company’s pursuit of the provisional liquidators, who will likely manage the business affairs of the company if they are appointed.

The suspension of trading in Genting Hong Kong shares was put in place on January 18. This remains in place.

The certification was issued following an audit of Scientific Games’ responsible gambling practices across its global lottery operations for both retail and digital products and services. 

The independent audit recognised that Scientific Games has in place a number of processes including the Healthy Play program, which, introduced in 2020, designed to promote healthy enjoyment of games through player education. 

The initiative offers lottery employee responsible gaming training, customised in content and multiple languages to ensure company-wide awareness and understanding of healthy, responsible lottery play.

Scientific Games also created the Healthy Play Guide, a lottery-focused digital magazine that outlines the Healthy Play programme and responsible gambling tools. An accompanying website, customisable for individual lotteries and accessible by lottery stakeholders through a QR code will launch this year.

“In the global lottery industry, Scientific Games has truly established its leadership role in responsible gaming,” WLA senior corporate social responsibility manager Mélissa Azam said. 

“The company’s Healthy Play program, which provides lotteries with real tools to support their own responsible gaming programs, demonstrates Scientific Games integration of the WLA Responsible Gaming Principles throughout the organization, and its investment in the future of the lottery industry.”

Scientific Games’ vice president for responsible gaming in lottery, Carla Schaefer, added: “Scientific Games is honoured to receive WLA’s Responsible Gaming Certification, which recognises our ongoing commitment to healthy play across our global lottery organisation.

“We want to give our lottery customers tools and best practices to help them market their products in healthy and responsible ways. Our Healthy Play program helps lotteries educate their players, establish trust and increase lottery literacy.”

The brands, both owned by Chicago based gaming and betting company Rush Street Interactive, announced signing the former professional baseball player and manager in an exclusive brand and content deal.

Valentine has over 50 years’ experience in the industry, having been a former major league baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers, California Angeles, New York Mets and Seattle Mariners.

He then went on to manage the Texas Rangers, the New York Mets, the Boston Red Sox and the championship team he led for the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan.

He will provide BetRivers and PlaySugarHouse with network and social media content, partaking in weekly major league baseball video, podcast, television and radio interviews for the betting company.

This follows his extensive experience as a broadcaster and analyst, having been a regular contributor to ESPN and NBC’s sports programs.

“I’m excited to be joining the BetRivers team at an exciting moment in the evolution of sports betting,” said Valentine. “This partnership will allow us to share my passion for competitive sports while at the same time providing valuable commentary to fans.”

“We are thrilled to have Bobby Valentine, whose career spans six decades, join our BetRivers family of Brand Ambassadors,” said Richard Schwartz, CEO of Rush Street Interactive, which operates BetRivers.com and PlaySugarHouse.com.

“His vast knowledge and valuable MLB insights will be a tremendous asset to our sports bettors.”

Rush Street Interactives was an early entrant in many of the US regulated jurisdictions, however now operates across 12 US states.

On 8 January, New York also announced the launch of mobile sports betting, with four approved operators – including Rush Street Interactive – going live on opening day, while BetMGM then launched this week. Four other operators still await permission to go live.

The announcement comes after Greg Carlin, Rush Street Interactives co-founder, resigned from the gaming business at the end of last year.

Services to promote games will be limited to a single concessionaire per junket, with the payment for these services only permitted in the form of commissions.

The amendments were drafted after the Executive Council approved a bill, following the Bureau of Gaming Supervision (DICJ) publishing responses to an initial consultation on changes at the end of last year.

Junkets within Macau came under heavy scrutiny following the arrest of SunCity chairman Alvin Chau, which led to his resignation from the company. SunCity also warned that a creditor claimed Chau had defaulted on a HK$300m (£29.0m/€34.0m/US$38.5m) loan when he was arrested in December, a move that it said could lead to a change in control.

Previously announced changes to the gaming bill include granting a ten-year concession to six operators, and a requirement for concessionaires to have a minimum share capital of MOP5bn (£454m/€543m/$621m).

An additional requirement states that 15% of shares in any business granted a licence must be held by a managing director that is a Macau resident.

In addition to those aspects revealed last week, the published bill reveals that the amendments will also include a maximum limit imposed on the number of gaming machines and table games operated within Macau so they can be “better used by concessionaires”.

A minimum limit of annual gross gaming revenue (GGR) per gaming table and gaming machine will be fixed by the Chief Executive.

When new casinos are installed on property owned by an operator, they will be granted a three year transitional period to acclimatise to casino operations after being granted a new licence.

It was also suggested that the new law should come into force the day after its publication.

Although the initial consultation proposed adding government representatives to the board of each concessionaire, this did not make the final version of the bill.