Gambling in the USA
Penn National Gaming to acquire Pinnacle Entertainment in $2.8bn deal
American casino operator Penn National Gaming Inc has announced the agreement of a $2.8bn cash plus stock deal to acquire fellow gaming operator Pinnacle Entertainment Inc.
Under the terms of the deal, Pinnacle’s shareholders will receive $20.00 in cash and 0.42 shares of Penn National Gaming common stock for each Pinnacle share. Pinnacle currently owns and operates 16 gaming and entertainment facilities in 11 jurisdictions across the US.
Upon the completion of the deal Penn National Gaming will own approximately 78% of the combined entity, with Pinnacle owning the rest. As a result of the deal, Penn National will operate a combined 41 properties with about 53,500 slots, 1,300 tables and 8,300 hotel rooms.
Penn National has received financing for the transaction, subject to customary conditions, from BofA Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs Bank USA. To further finance the transaction Penn National and Gaming Leisure Properties Incorporated will enter into a sale and leaseback of the real estate associated with Belterra Park and Plainridge Park Casino for approximately $315m.
An additional $575m in cash will be raised via the sale of Pinnacle’s gaming operations at Ameristar Kansas City and Ameristar St. Charles in Missouri; Belterra Casino Resort in Indiana; and Belterra Park in Ohio to Boyd Gaming Corporation.
In a statement announcing the deal on the Penn National Gaming website, Timothy J. Wilmott, Chief Executive Officer of Penn National Gaming said: “By combining our highly complementary portfolios and similar operating philosophies, we will be able to leverage the strengths of both our companies and create an unparalleled experience for our regional gaming customers, while generating significant value for our shareholders and business partners.
“The combined company will benefit from enhanced scale, additional growth opportunities and best-in-class operations, creating a more efficient integrated gaming company. We look forward to welcoming Pinnacle’s talented employees to our team and to further enhancing our status as North America’s leading regional gaming operator.”
The $2.8bn deal is expected to generate $100m in annual cost synergies during the first year.
Anthony Sanfilippo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pinnacle Entertainment, added: “Pinnacle is a terrific company whose success is due to the efforts of our more than 16,000 team members that focus every day on providing great service and memorable experiences for our guests.
“Tim and the Penn National team lead a high-quality organisation that, like Pinnacle, has a long track record of operational excellence and accretive growth. We believe the combination will produce an even stronger gaming entertainment platform that builds on the individual accomplishments of both companies and benefits our collective team members, shareholders and guests.”
Gambling in the USA
Boom In 2021 March Madness Wagering Reflects Expansion of Legal Betting Market
Online sports betting operators are set to see record-breaking wagering on March Madness this year.
The three-week long, single-elimination, seven-round NCAA college basketball tournament got underway in Indiana on March 18 and runs until the Championship final on April 5.
The dramatic growth of sports betting popularity over the last two years has been attributed to the ever-expanding US legal market which has seen 14 new legal jurisdictions open up and offer legal sports gambling. This equates to almost 74 million more Americans being able to safely and legally bet on March Madness this year.
The latest state to offer sports betting was North Carolina which went legal on March 18 just in time for bettors to get involved in the March Madness action.
17.8 million say they will place a bet online, up 206% from 5.8 million in 2019.
According to a report published by the American Gaming Association (‘AGA’) $8.5 billion was gambled on March Madness in 2019 by 5.8 million people.
With 45% of American adults now living in a state with legalized sports betting the number of people doing their March Madness betting online is expected to top 17 million in 2021.
Offline bets are also estimated to increase this year with the number of Americans placing their college basketball bets at brick-and-mortar sportsbooks nearly doubling.
March Madness Key Dates:
- March 18-19: First Round
- March 20-21: Second Round
- March 25-26: Sweet 16
- March 27-28: Elite Eight
- April 3: Final Four
- April 5: National Championship
2021 March Madness Wagering Estimates
47.4 million American adults are expecting to bet on March Madness this year. That’s more than 20% of the population!
Although that’s about the same number that indicated they would bet on the tournament in 2019, the number of people betting with a sportsbook is set to rise dramatically.
Other key findings reported by the American Gaming Association:
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30.6 million Americans expect to place more traditional NCAA March Madness bets with sportsbooks on this year’s tournament, up from 17.8 million in 2019.
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8.3 million expect to place a bet at a physical sportsbook, up 79% from 2019.
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36.7 million Americans say they will fill out a bracket, down 8 percent from 2019.
Bill Miller, President and CEO, American Gaming Association said “The sports betting landscape has changed dramatically since 2019 – and as a result, tournament betting has transformed. With more legal, regulated options than ever before, millions of customers now have safer ways to enjoy all the fun and suspense only March Madness provides.”
This year, due to the global pandemic, the tournament will be held entirely in a single state (Indiana) with the Championship final game scheduled for April 5 at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
According to Vegas-Odds.com futures betting data from online sportsbooks – the teams most likely to take home the Championship trophy are the Gonzaga Bulldogs (+170), Baylor Bears (+375) and the Houston Cougars (+800).
More March Madness Facts & Stats:
- Gaming analysts Eilers & Krejcik estimated that if all 50 U.S. states had legal online sports betting, sportsbooks would handle $15.2 billion in total bets for March Madness alone, grossing about $1.2 billion of revenue.
- Interest in this NCAA men’s college basketball tournament is up slightly from 2019 with 26% of Americans saying they are very interested in March Madness, compared to 23% two years ago.
- Regulated Vs International Sportsbooks : $3.9 billion of bets will come mostly by way of international websites and bookmakers, though 4.1 million people will also place legal wagers through licensed U.S based casinos & sportsbook operators.
- The betting odds of predicting all 63 March Madness games correctly is 1 in 9.2 quintillion!
- The longest winning streak of NCAA tournament bracket picks to start the March Madness tournament stands at an astonishing 49, with an Ohio bettor correctly predicting the entire 2019 NCAA tournament into the Sweet 16 stage.
casino
California to compete with Las Vegas
Casino operators in California are investing in the business to be able to compete with Las Vegas.
Casino operators in the State of California are innovating the market to strengthen its potential and be able to compete with the neighbouring city of Las Vegas, the most renowned gaming hub of the country. According to a recent study, 27 percent of tourists in Las Vegas come from the state of California.
Therefore, local native tribes that operate casinos in the region decided to further invest in innovative gaming services for residents and boost the regional economy. The operators are planning to improve current casino services by adding “integrated resorts, complete with shops, restaurants, spas and various other entertainment activities.”
Katherine Spilde, director of Sycuan Institute on Government Gaming at San Diego State University, explained: “The tribes are really responding to a mature tourist market.” And added: The integrated resort is the evolved model of gaming where the gaming is just one part of the larger experience.”
Meanwhile, the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians has recently held a pre-inauguration event celebrating the upcoming casino in California. The ceremony was held last Monday and authorities lifted white beams containing the signatures of tribal members, casino employees and construction workers to the top of the frame of the six-story hotel.
Gambling in the USA
Pollard Equities Limited to support Scientific Games/NYX Gaming merger
Canadian investment firm, Pollard Equities Limited has announced it has reached an agreement with NYX Gaming Group and Scientific Games Corporation to support the proposed acquisition of NYX by Scientific Games for $631m.
A shareholders meeting to discuss the proposed acquisition is scheduled for the 20 December in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The acquisition can proceed if a majority in number of NYX shareholders present and voting, either in person or by proxy, represent at least 75% in value of the NYX ordinary shares held by those NYX shareholders present and voting, either in person or by proxy (excluding those shares already held by Scientific Games) or by a simple majority of the votes cast by the holders of NYX ordinary shares.
At present Pollard Equities Limited owns 8,621,300 ordinary shares of NYX and 4,000,000 warrants having upped its number of warrants last month in a CDN$120,000 deal bringing its potential stake in NYX Gaming up to 11.2%.
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