John Locher (Associated Press) While many gambling companies are branching out, Scientific Games is looking to hone its focus. It made a concrete step in that direction on Tuesday, announcing the sale of its sports betting business, OpenBet , to Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc.
Its name may not be as familiar to some readers as customer-facing brands. Nonetheless, Scientific Games is behind many popular slots, digital table games and iLottery products in the US. It also supplies account management platforms, aggregates content from other suppliers, and provides lottery services. It sees focusing on the casino-related products as the most lucrative way forward, however.
The company announced over the summer that it was looking to sell off its sports betting and lottery arms in order to concentrate on iGaming. It has now managed the first half of that through the deal with Endeavor . The latter, a global sports and entertainment company, will pick up OpenBet for $1 billion in cash, plus $200 million in Endeavor stock.
Scientific Games CEO Barry Cottle said that the transaction represents “the culmination of a thorough process” to sell off OpenBet and provide value for shareholders. The transaction is a significant milestone towards optimizing our portfolio and de-levering the balance sheet to enhance our financial flexibility. It will position us to invest both organically and inorganically in key growth areas, particularly in content and digital markets. We are delivering on our promises and executing on our strategy to transform our company and unlock significant value for employees, customers and shareholders. Endeavor has been a publicly traded company since April. Its shares rose about 6% on news of the OpenBet acquisition. Scientific Games investors seemed indifferent, or may have anticipated the news. Its price barely moved on Tuesday, but has more than doubled in value over the past six months. Expanding Endeavor’s existing B2B services
On Endeavor’s end, the focus of the deal seems to be synergy with its subsidiary IMG Arena. Like Scientific Games, IMG Arena is a B2B company, albeit one with a more narrow focus.
At the moment, it provides sports content for sports betting […]
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