M&A ROUNDUP: DEALS Sponsored by FOR SCIENTIFIC GAMES, PLAYTECH & BETHARD M&A ROUNDUP: DEALS Sponsored by FOR SCIENTIFIC GAMES, PLAYTECH & BETHARD See Also Page 3 THIS WEEK Associated Press names • Atlantic City FanDuel exclusive sports Q1 profi ts soar odds provider • Macau visitation boost • Bally’s launches in Colorado • Colombia launch for William Hill GUEST INTERVIEW: •Malte Hegeler, Head of Sportsbook Development OddsMatrix, EveryMatrix Sponsored by During a particularly busy week for gaming consolidation, there were M&A deals for Scientific Games, Playtech and Esports Entertainment Group Scientific Games has announced the acquisition of sports simplified group and the exciting growth opportunities ahead will betting company SportCast, while Playtech has sold its deliver significant value to shareholders.” financial trading business, Finalto, and Esports Entertainment And finally, Esports Entertainment Group has signed an Group has signed an agreement to acquire sports betting agreement to acquire the Swedish and Spanish-licensed sports operator Bethard. All in a week’s work during a busy period for betting operator Bethard. gaming mergers and acquisitions. As part of the agreement, Esports Entertainment will pay SportCast offers pre-match and in-play betting, and its $19.5m in cash and 12% of its net gaming revenue share for the purchase will allow Scientific Games to enhance its global suite next two years. The company has said it expects the deal to be of sports technology and services. finalised and closed by July 1, 2021. It will also allow Scientific Games to gain SportCast’s original In 2020, Bethard generated revenue of $31m; because of this, BetBuilder product, a feature that gives players the chance to Esports Entertainment has now raised its fiscal 2022 revenue build wagers across multiple markets on a single game. guidance from $100m to $105m. SportCast currently rolls out its technology to over 50 brands in the industry, including BetMGM, Sky Bet, Tabcorp, Entain and “While Esports Entertainment Group’s 888 Holdings. Its technology is able to process over 12,000 bets per second acquisition of Bethard is a major coup, across major global sports such as American and European much of the talk around it could focus football, baseball, ice hockey and tennis. on professional footballer Zlatan Playtech, meanwhile, announced the sale of Finalto in its trading update for the period from 1 January to 30 April 2021. Ibrahimovic. The AC Milan and Sweden The group has entered into an agreement for the sale of Finalto striker reportedly owns 10% of Bethard to a consortium led by Barinboim Group, backed by Leumi through his own company, Partners Limited and Menora Mivtachim Insurance Limited, together with key members of the Finalto Business’ thus violating the code of ethics management team. set out by FIFA and UEFA” The cash offer is up to $210m, comprising an initial $185m, of which $15m is deferred for up to two years from completion Since Bethard has licences in Spain and Sweden, the acquisition of the transaction; together with a further $25m contingent on will allow Esports Entertainment to gain licensed gaming certain cash flow or other criteria being met by the business businesses in both jurisdictions. carried on by Finalto. Esports Entertainment Group CEO, Grant Johnson, said. “This is The transaction is expected to be completed in Q4 2021, and another great addition for Esports Entertainment Group that will increase Playtech’s unrestricted cash by approximately $200m, substantially increases our revenues and available markets. with up to an additional deferred $40m of cash proceeds to follow. “With this transaction, we expect to gain two new gaming Playtech highlighted the strength of its online businesses licences, including one in the strategically important Swedish throughout the first four months of 2021, with US progress a key market. At the completion of the licence handover, we will element to this strength; after the company signed a strategic have six tier-one licences.” multi-state, multi-product deal with the Greenwood companies, GI Verdict: Scientific Games’ acquisition of SportCast and subsequently launched in Michigan with further launches will allow the former to utilise the latter’s technology and planned later in 2021 and 2022. platforms to keep sports fans satisfied in an exciting time The group also announced plans to build a live casino facility in for the industry.Playtech, meanwhile, is seemingly more Michigan, and expects to have facilities operational in Michigan, comfortable with its new simplified offering, with its new New Jersey and Pennsylvania later in 2021. direction set to rely heavily on its technology-led offering “I am delighted by the strong performance Playtech has in B2B and B2C gambling. And while Esports Entertainment delivered so far in 2021, despite the ongoing challenges posed by Group’s acquisition of Bethard is a major coup, much of the the pandemic,” said Playtech CEO Mor Weizer. “The sale of Finalto talk around it could focus on professional footballer delivers on our strategy to simplify the company. Our technology Zlatan Ibrahimovic. and product offering is unrivalled and we have a clear growth The AC Milan and Sweden striker reportedly owns 10% of strategy to expand the geographic reach of our core B2B business. Bethard through his own company, thus violating the code “We believe that due to the hard work and dedication of of ethics set out by FIFA and UEFA; but the Swede has now our employees, Playtech will exit the pandemic stronger than reportedly ended his involvement in the company. Just this week, ever,” added Weizer. “Looking ahead, we are confident that the he was fined €50,000 ($61,000) by UEFA for his stake in Bethard. Sponsored by THIS WEEK IN ASSOCIATED PRESS NAMES NUMBERS FANDUEL EXCLUSIVE SPORTS 50 ODDS PROVIDER The Associated Press The announcement The voting process for the Global has partnered with comes approximately Gaming Awards FanDuel as its exclusive two weeks after FanDuel London 2021 is now sports odds provider. CEO Matt King said he underway, with 50 industry CEOs The multi-year deal will was leaving the company, choosing the winners and KPMG see the AP exclusively following three years at the monitoring the entire process cite FanDuel odds in its helm. Last year, FanDuel coverage of sports betting. FanDuel saw revenue grow by 81% to $896m. widgets will be incorporated on the The Flutter Entertainment-owned AP’s sports pages and FanDuel odds operator has recently launched mobile 2021 will be distributed across AP wire sportsbooks in Tennessee, Virginia, content such as game previews. Iowa and Illinois. The self-nomination “As sports betting becomes more FanDuel also announced last week it window for the Global Gaming commonplace, our customers are is opening a tech hub in Atlanta that will Awards Las Vegas increasingly asking for this kind of provide more than 900 jobs. 2021 is now open information,” said Barry Bedlan, AP’s GI Verdict: This major partnership global director of text and new markets is groundbreaking in many ways, products. “It makes sense to work with additionally raising a number of – almost one of the largest reputable sportsbooks philosophical – questions. Can media in the US to provide a consistent, content really be bought and sold 17 credible reference point for AP and in this way? Will having all AP wires Denise, John and its customers.” citing FanDuel odds really improve the Peter Coates’ net The partnership is the first of its kind operator’s market share? worth has given the between a sports betting operator and Perhaps an even more interesting family the number 17 the AP, which is considered a definitive question is what happens if, spot in the Sunday news source. hypothetically speaking, an intern Times Rich List 2021 “AP is a globally recognised leader were to use odds/lines from FanDuel in trusted news, making them the rival DraftKings? What would happen ideal source for us to disseminate internally at AP and how would FanDuel our industry-leading sportsbook’s be compensated for this as stated by its 2 proprietary odds and content,” said contract with the media firm? Adam Kaplan, FanDuel Group’s general The sports betting media battle is well Operator Betsson manager and vice president of content. underway, so much so that DraftKings Group has been According to an internal memo recently acquired its own sports betting granted two licences for obtained by Forbes, an AP editor network in VSiN. FanDuel’s AP deal can online gaming described the partnership with FanDuel perhaps be viewed as a direct response and betting in Greece, by the Sportsbook as “valuable” and “long-term.” to this (although it was most likely Hellenic Gaming Commission “We have heard from dozens of already in the works anyway). customers over the last six months The progress FanDuel makes from this asking for more sports gambling stories deal will be intriguing to monitor: will on the wire and gambling info in our competitors genuinely lose out by not fixtures,” the internal memo read. being referenced by AP? Its services are AU$2.2bn “We know that a huge increase in far-reaching, at the end of the day, with interest in sports over the past two AP copy published across a wide range In H1 operating revenue for years has been due to the expansion of of outlets worldwide. Aristocrat’s nancial legal sports gambling, which will soon At least one positive definitely does year (US$1.7bn), be available in more than half of the come out of this: AP should no longer a 1% growth country. We’ll look for more smart ways cite the odds of any illegal, offshore year-on-year to serve that readership.” sportsbooks. At least in theory, anyway.