Handle in the month amounted to $46.7m, which was 2.5% lower than $47.9m in the same month in 2022 but 17.3% ahead of $39.8m in February of this year.
Turning to revenue, the state posted $5.0m for the month, up 22.0% year-on-year and also 61.3% higher than $3.1m in February.
Lottomatica’s IPO – which is set to run from 24 to 27 April – will aim to raise €600m consisting of €425m of newly issued stock, as well as €175m of shares to be sold by existing investor Gamma Topco. A substantial chunk of the raised capital will be used to finance debt, much of which is owned by Lottomatica’s parent company Apollo Global Management.
Gamma granted investment firm Goldman Sachs an option to purchase nearly 20,000,000 additional shares, to be exercised during a period of up to 30 days after the shares start trading on the Euronext Milan exchange. This amounts to around 15% of the total number of shares on offer.
The offering will initially be available to institutional investors in the European Economic Area and UK, as well as some qualified investors in the US. The offering still awaits approval from the stock exchange Borsa Italiana and the Italian financial regulator Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB).
A consortium of banks including Barclays Bank Ireland, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and UniCredit are acting as global coordinators and bookrunners for the venture. Credit Suisse is additionally providing financial advising services.
In May 2021, IGT completed the €950m sale of its Italian facing B2C gaming business to a subsidiary of funds owned by Apollo. Last month, Lottomatica’s 2022 financial report saw revenue growth push the business into profitability during its first full year of trading since the company’s acquisition.
During the period, the Lottomatica reported a net profit of €79.3m, following a 72.8% increase in revenue. Lottomatica was able to report a net profit of €79.3m (£69.7m/$84.0m) for its 2022 financial year following a 72.8% increase in revenue to €1.41bn.
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The business entered into the deal with the holder of the debt, Alto Opportunity Master Fund, which agreed to exchange the remaining balance of the company’s liabilities into new unsecured stock after EEG’s next capital raise.
Once completed, combined with a number of prior transactions, the agreement will reduce the company’s debt by approximately $42m, resulting in a largely debt free balance sheet. EEG said that it that the move represents “material progress” towards addressing the company’s remaining Nasdaq listing deficiencies.
The business narrowly escaped de-listing towards the end of 2022, and – after the exit of the CEO – put in place a plan to return towards listing suitability. The closing of the deal will see EEG able to demonstrate that it is in compliance with the Nasdaq requirement to have a minimum of $2.5m in stockholder equity spelled out in the exchange’s listing rules.
“We appreciate the tremendous support of our senior lender, who has agreed to exchange their senior convertible note to preferred equity, which we believe illustrates their confidence in the outlook for the business, while improving our balance sheet, enhancing cash flow, and providing us greater financial flexibility to execute our new growth strategy,” said EEG CEO Alex Igelman.
Alto director Waqas Khatri himself expressed his belief in the company’s prospects.
“We are excited to support this debt reduction transaction, which not only demonstrates our confidence in the company’s leadership, direction, and fiscal discipline but also reflects our belief in the new management team’s cohesive vision for the Company’s technology assets,” he said.
“We applaud the company’s more operationally efficient business model and the team’s focus on creating long-term value and profitability. This transaction is a testament of our commitment to the Company, and we are honored to be a part of its success story.”
This week, Igelman announced a series of initiatives to divest itself of a number of revenue streams in order to focus on a more streamlined set of B2C operations. The executive re-emphasised the content of that letter, highlighting the proposed savings as placing the business on a sure financial footing.
“I recently outlined a series of initiatives, well underway, to focus our efforts on key business lines within the igaming, esports and e-simulator markets, while simultaneously streamlining operations,” he said.
“Through the actions already in place, we expect to reduce our operating expenses by over $4.0 million on an annualised basis and have identified further opportunities to reduce costs going forward.
“Including this latest note exchange, we have also reduced debt and other liabilities by over $42 million, year to date. As a result, I believe the company’s financial and operational outlook is back on track to capitalize on the esports opportunities ahead of us.”
This forms part of a credit agreement that took place on 26 April 2022.
GAN, through its wholly-owned subsidiary GAN Nevada, officially entered into the three agreements on 13 April 2023. The agent for the loan is Alter Domus LLC.
The first agreement was entered into on the basis that Beach Point would waive certain defaults under the credit agreement, and would amend certain elements – including replacing the consolidated interest coverage ratio with a liquidity covenant of $10m, beginning 30 June 2023.
Both Beach Point and Japan-based gaming company Sega Sammy entered into the second agreement, known as an assignment and acceptance. As part of this, Beach Point assigned all its rights and obligations to Sega Sammy under the credit agreement.
Upon the execution of Beach Point and Sega Sammy’s assignment and acceptance deal, GAN Nevada initiated the third agreement – a second amendment to the credit agreement with Sega Sammy. This allows GAN Nevada to borrow an additional $12m of term loans to pay various fees. This final agreement took effect on 14 April.
Earlier this week, GAN filed its annual report late, after it announced in an SEC filing that it would be unable to make the deadline.
White, who has been the co-host of the Wheel of Fortune television show since 1982, will star in omnichannel advertisements for BetMGM’s new game, along with appearing in other marketing materials promoting the app.
Matt Prevost, chief revenue officer at BetMGM, said that BetMGM is pleased to have White involved in promoting the game.
This was up by 8% compared to FDJ‘s performance in Q1 2021.
On a pro forma basis for 2022 – which included revenue from FDJ’s point of sales segment Aleda and payment service L’Addition – the revenue was up by 5.3% comparably.
Lottery revenue for the quarter was 6.4% higher than in Q1 2022, at €497m, while sports betting revenue grew slightly by 0.2%, remaining fairly level at €129m.
A total of €5.49bn was wagered with the operator during the quarter, a rise of 8.6%. Digital stakes made up €698m of the total.
From points of sale, revenue hit €4.79bn, a rise of 6.9%.
“The first quarter of 2023 was marked by the continued good financial and extra-financial performance of the FDJ group,” said Stéphane Pallez, chair and CEO of FDJ. “Our turnover is up by more than 5%, driven both by our network of 30,000 points of sale and by the good momentum of our digital activity.”
Earlier this week, FDJ appointed Guillaume Wanneroy as the managing director of its audiovisual subsidiary ImSoprod.
Offering slots, live casino and table games, Buzzcasino.com follows the September 2022 launch of Buzz Bingo’s live bingo streaming service. While the site was designed in-house, it was built in collaboration with long-term tech partner Playtech.
Digital operations director at Buzz Group Dave Evans said that the business was “proud” to announce the launch of the new brand.
“Casino is an important part of our product mix and, while bingo is still at the heart of our business, our players love to experience new content and spend their leisure time playing in different ways.
“Buzz Casino is the latest part of our journey and we continue to use our brand spirit and over 50 years of hosting players in our clubs to build our product with community at the heart.”
The news marks the company’s return to the igaming space, having previously offered online casino under its previous brand Gala Bingo.
Following Gala’s acquisition by Ladbrokes, the Gala brand was maintained for the igaming segment of the business, while the retail bingo outlet was purchased by Caledonia Investments in 2015. The firm later sold the business to Intermediate Capital Group in 2021.
After using the Gala brand under licence for three years, the company opted to rebrand to Buzz Bingo in 2018.
“It’s very exciting to be bringing a new casino product to market, especially one that brings all the fun of Buzz Bingo to the casino world, while adopting different principles in its design,” said head of product management at Buzz Group Laura Craddock.
“Inspiration from the streaming video world has helped make content the focus of the UI, making it easy for players to find the games they love, in a fun and trusted environment they know they’ll get from a Buzz venue.”
After becoming insolvent during the Covid-19 pandemic, Buzz Bingo announced in March that it would be closing 10% of its clubs in the UK.
Gross receipts for the month from igaming and online sports betting reached $216.4m, up from $162.2m in March 2022 and $170.8m in February of this year.
Of this total, $171.8m came from online casino, a new record for the state surpassing the previous monthly high of $153.7m that was set in January 2023.
Under the agreement, Kindred will roll out a retail operation at the Swinomish Casino & Lodge, in line with a wider, six-year deal announced in October last year.
The first phase of the sportsbook launch covers Unibet branded kiosks and over-the-counter sports betting, with further developments to include a Unibet sports betting lounge, due to launch later this year.
