Monthly Archives: July 2015

Caesars plays for time by striking deal with junior creditors

Struggling casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corporation (CEC) will likely learn on Wednesday whether its parent company will be dragged into the bankruptcy proceedings afflicting its main unit.

CEC put its main unit Caesars Entertainment Operating Co (CEOC) into Chapter 11 in January, citing $18.4b in long-term debt. CEC has proposed a restructuring plan that would see CEOC split into a casino operator and a real estate investment trust (REIT).

The majority of CEOC’s senior creditors have signed on with the REIT proposal but junior creditors – who hold over $5b worth of CEOC’s debt but were slated to receive pennies on the dollar after CEC reneged on debt obligations – were understandably less enthused.

Late on Monday, CEC signaled that it had convinced a number of hedge funds – which Bloomberg News said included Paulson & Co, Canyon Partners and Soros Fund Management – holding around 30% of CEOC’s second-lien debt to sign on to the restructuring plan.

Gaming and Leisure Properties to acquire all of Pinnacle's real estate

After talks were confirmed in May , Gaming and Leisure Properties has announced an agreement to acquire all of the real estate assets of Pinnacle Entertainment in an all stock deal. With the deal, which was approved by both companies’ boards of directors, Pinnacle’s property business Belterra Park Gaming & Entertainment will be spun off into a separate public company called “OpCo.”

Cancelled fantasy sports expo sues NFL for “blatant and premeditated sabotage”

The National Football League will have to justify its hypocritical anti-gambling stance in court.

On Monday, a Texas-based company named The Fan Expo LLC sued the NFL in US District Court in Dallas County. Fan Expo is seeking over $1m in damages related to last month’s abrupt cancellation of the National Fantasy Football Convention (NFFC).

The three-day convention, which was to feature Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and a host of other NFL stars, was scrapped one month before it was set to kick off after the NFL ‘reminded’ the NFL Players Association of its longstanding policy of not associating the NFL brand with gambling.

The NFFC was scheduled to take place at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas, a non-gaming appendage to Las Vegas Sands’ Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. But the NFL insisted that this proximity contravened its policy of preventing its players from engaging in “promotional activities or other appearances at or in connection with events that are held at or sponsored by casinos.”

GVC Could Be Plotting Solo Bwin.Party Takeover, Insiders Say 

GVC Holdings is considering one last throw of the dice in its battle to acquire bwin.party, this time without the financial assistance of Amaya Inc. Insiders report that rumors have been circulating in London’s financial district that GVC has been talking to institutions about the possibility of a large fund raise for an enormous leveraged […]

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Golf Sensation Jordan Spieth Plays Poker in Masters Jacket

Jordan Spieth, the 21-year-old golf hotshot, is something of a poker player according to a recent interview. The US golfer from Texas, who recently finished battling against the best golfers in the world at the British Open, recently told reporters that he’s been known to wear the famous green jacket (given to the winner of […]

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Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority soft launch New Jersey online casino site

The operators of Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun casino have become the latest operator to soft launch in New Jersey’s online gambling market.

The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority (MTGA), which also operates the Mohegan Sun Pocono casino in Pennsylvania, manages the operations of Atlantic City’s Resorts Casino Hotel. As such, the MTGA has launched its MoheganSunCasino.com site under Resorts’ license, sharing the NYX Gaming Group platform that powers the ResortsCasino.com site, which launched this spring.

The MTGA’s site is still awaiting the official go-ahead from the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE), which could come as early as Wednesday. The MTGA will then become the second tribal gaming operator to operate a New Jersey online site, following Pala Interactive’s launch late last year.

The MTGA has no current plans to offer online poker in New Jersey, which is probably for the best, given the ever-declining state of the vertical, which posted record low revenue of just over $1.8m in June. The casino vertical has fared far better, rising 32% year-on-year last month. Resorts has a pending online poker deal with Amaya Gaming’s PokerStars brand, which is still awaiting a favorable nod from the DGE.

MGM Resorts, Aliante Casino pursue mobile sports betting customers

Casino operator MGM Resorts has confirmed that its new mobile sports betting product will be available to Nevada bettors this November.

The mobile push is part of a wholesale sportsbook technology upgrade courtesy of International Game Technology (IGT). While the app will be ready this November, MGM race and sports VP Jay Rood told Gaming Today that the new wagering system wouldn’t be in place until next summer. However, Rood said members of MGM’s M Life rewards program will be able to integrate their sports betting with a virtual wallet linked to all amenities on MGM properties.

Rood says the company is keen to educate visitors to Vegas that mobile betting is available to anyone who signs up at a local sportsbook, provided they’re within Nevada’s borders when they make their wager. Rood said he’d like to have people ‘handing out cards with our phone wagering information as guests enter any of our three arenas and then have a kiosk right near where they can sign up and deposit money into their account.”

The Aliante Casino in North Las Vegas recently launched its own mobile betting app. The product, which is powered by Miomni Gaming, is available for both Android and iPhone devices. While the app works anywhere in the state, accounts can only opened in person at the Aliante Sports Book, and deposits and withdrawals are also in-person only. Miomni’s technology also powers the mobile betting apps offered by Boyd Gaming and the Atlantis Casino.

Las Vegas and Quebec only bidders for NHL expansion

The National Hockey League (NHL)  has confirmed that Las Vegas and Quebec City were the only bidders for NHL’s “potential” expansion by Monday’s deadline.

NHL said it has received 16 application from 16 groups/individuals since opening the application to all interested parties but on June 21 deadline, only two bidders—one from Bill Foley for a franchise in Las Vegas, Nevada, and one from Quebecor for a franchise in Quebec City, Quebec—were the only ones to submit a formal application along with the required fee—$10 million, $2 million of which is nonrefundable.

“Our purpose, in initiating the expansion process in the manner we did, was not only to explore the possibility of admitting new members to the NHL but also, at the outset, to set realistic guideposts to distinguish between bona fide expressions of interest (i.e., those which have at least substantial ownership capabilities and an arena or the realistic possibility of an arena) from those indications of potential interest which were, at best, merely hopes or aspirations. Apparently, only Mr. Foley and Quebecor have the confidence in their ability to secure an arena and suitable ownership capability to move forward with this process,” said the NHL on a press release.

There is no surprise with either bid as both have ownership capabilities and arenas that should be ready by 2017-18. Foley held a season-ticket drive in December, a push to convince the NHL that a Las Vegas team would be able to thrive in the city; while Quebecor, who manages and owns the naming rights for the city’s new publicly funded 18,259-seat Videotron Arena, believes that the group and the city has all the ingredients for the NHL expansion.

IG Group full-year profit dented by Swiss franc incident

IG Group posted a 13% drop in full-year pre-tax profit, as online trading company took a hit from the surge in the Swiss franc in January when the Swiss National Bank announced without notice that it was ceasing intervention in the franc exchange rate. For the year ended 31 May, pre-tax profit was down to A 169.5m from 194.9m last year.