Good morning. On today’s agenda:

• Deal worth a rumored €150m would mark MGM’s further online Push.

• In the week ahead Churchill Downs, Evolution and Boyd are at bat.

• The startup focus is AI-based info provider Data Skrive.

World, the time has come to push the button.

MGM and Push 

The €150m buyout would be under the LeoVegas umbrella.

Push the button: MGM Resorts is set to announce it will be acquiring online gaming supplier and developer Push Gaming in a €150m deal, according to iGaming Next. The report suggested the deal will be announced this week. Neither company responded to enquiries.

• The deal will be the first since MGM announced its intention to buy LeoVegas in May last year for $607m.

• On subsequent earnings calls, MGM CEO Bill Hornbuckle has made the point that the company sees LeoVegas as its vehicle of choice for any online expansion.

• In the same comments where he dismissed the potential of a bid for Entain, he spoke of MGM going down the route of “bolt-on and relatively small” acquisitions.

Who are you? Push Gaming is a UK and Malta-based online gaming supplier and developer founded in 2010 by CEO James Marshall and COO Winston Lee.

M&A lines

NorthStar Gaming has engaged Blue Sky Trading & Consulting to provide advice related to potential capital raisings and M&A. Blue Sky will receive a retainer of $55k a month, payable in NorthStar shares.

Morris minor: In comments that slipped through the net in late March, Playmaker CEO Jordan Gnat said during his company’s Q4 earnings call that it was “actively pursuing” the sale of the betting and media solutions business Two-Up, a company co-founded by industry face Rob Morris. 

• Playmaker bought the widget and data visualization business for $5.8m in Sep21. On the call, Gnat said Two-Up was “no longer core”.

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Challengers welcome

GeoComply and Citi invite start-ups and emerging operators and suppliers to free NYC Summit with superstars of gaming

Avengers assemble: innovators, disruptors and grizzled veterans set to share hacks, tips and tricks with developing companies targeting regulated gaming markets in the US.

• FanDuel, BetDEX and Vault co-founder Nigel Eccles heads a stellar cast of financiers, lawyers, operators, marketers, compliance professionals and, ahem, emerging media moguls (see full cast here)

• E+M’s own Scott Longley will be on hand to talk media matters and learn a thing or two from all of the above

• The Challenger Series Summit is a free event in New York on May 8th, 3pm-7pm.

Come with us: the US gaming market can be a tough nut to crack. To get some free advice from some who have cracked it, apply for this exclusive event here.

The week ahead

Churchill Downs: The regulatory cards couldn’t have fallen better for Churchill Downs. First, it saw its long-cherished bill to crackdown on illegal gambling machines in Kentucky gain legislative passage, followed by a sports-betting bill that gained Gov. Andy Beshear’s signature earlier this month.

• Last time out: In Q4 the company said it was set to reap the rewards from the $2.75bn Peninsular Pacific acquisition completed in November, with historical racing machines being the five to 10-year focus.

• Analyst take: Truist said in a mid-March initiation note that Churchill Downs was the “best growth story in gaming”.

Evolution: The evidence of past quarters suggested there’s truth in the company’s claim in Q4 that the gap to the competition is wider than ever. Note, quarterly EBITDA rose 75% between Q121 and Q422 while EBITDA margins were up 100 bps over the same period.

🔥 Evolution enjoys the benefits of fat margins

Kindred: It’s been an eventful start to 2023 for Kindred with the previously provisioned £7.1m fine from the UKGC finally being announced in late March.

• Last time out: This followed a profit warning in early January, which Kindred blamed on the timing of the World Cup. The company said revenues came in below expectations at £305.5m, while pre-tax profit fell 34% to £51.9m.

• Background: E+M’s Due Diligence noted Kindred is a serial profit warner.

Kambi: Q4 earnings saw the company benefit from the €12.6m termination fee from Penn, helping to boost revenues to €57.8m, up 66%. Subsequently, it has added deals with Potawatomi Casinos in Wisconsin and Corredor Empresarial in Colombia.

Boyd Gaming: Deutsche Bank noted last week that Boyd’s share price has “healthily” outperformed its regional gaming peers so far this year, up over 23% YTD. They added that Boyd is likely to discuss stable core markets and might enjoy some favorable revisions.

Boyd share price year-to-date

E+M this week

Data Month: The latest edition tomorrow reviews the debut data from Massachusetts, looking at DraftKings’ evident enthusiasm for winning on its home turf. 

• Meanwhile, data from Michigan and Pennsylvania suggests rival BetMGM is also engaged in market share creation.

In Compliance+More this week, the latest news on NFL player suspensions is examined.

Calendar

• Apr 25: Boyd Gaming, E+M Data Month

• Apr 26: Kindred, Kambi, Churchill Downs (earnings)

• Apr 27: Evolution, Churchill Downs (call)

Analyst takes

Light & Wonder: B Riley analysts have initiated with a neutral rating, identifying risks to the company’s 2025 forecast EBITDA. In iCasino, they noted LNW captures more online slot GGR than any other supplier.

• But they cautioned that Aristocrat is entering the US market with a “buy and build strategy”, recently announcing its “first meaningful” iCasino content deal with BetMGM last month.

• Meanwhile, while “encouraged” by LNW’s live casino expansion, the team believed US regulations surrounding the format “reduce scalability relative to core iGaming tech supply”.

An early GGR call: Looking at the OSB data from March and April, the team at Truist highlighted the March Madness impact; with 50% of the data in for March, they estimated GGR is tracking up 20% YoY from a 50% rise in handle.

• But the first nine days of data from New York showed GGR down 52% from a handle that was down 19%.

MLB in Las Vegas: The possibility of the Oakland A’s moving to Las Vegas is another sign of expansion “in a good way”, suggested the team at JMP. They pointed out that the addition of MLB would allow for Las Vegas to have year-round sporting events, adding to the NFL, NHL, WNBA and large-scale events such as the Final Four and the Super Bowl. 

Rank: Analysts at Peel Hunt noted the “improving momentum” at the start of the company’s second half. “The group has the resources to continue to invest in upgrading venues and enhancing the digital offer,” the team added.

Startup focus – Data Skrive

If you don’t know me by now: The Seattle-based fan engagement info provider was founded by Brad Weitz in 2021 with a mission to provide articles about “every player on every team in every league for every game every day for every fan”.

• What have you done for me lately: The company completed a Series A funding round in Sep21, led by Bettor Capital, which also saw Bettor’s Jake Kleiner join the board.

What’s the big idea? In short, it is content marketing across affiliate websites with a focus very much on the local. The AI-assisted platform produces sports articles at scale using sports and sports betting as the beachhead.

• Who is it working with? USA Today, Catena Media, AP, Fox Sport, ESPN…

Brad Weitz: “We are producing millions of articles that are read by hundreds of millions of sports fans, lowering customer acquisition costs and unlocking new revenue streams.”

Big numbers: Data Skrive says over 100m sports fans read its articles per month across a ‘Fan Engagement Network’ of 800+ websites delivering over 19 billion page views.

• “Sports and sports gambling content is among the most sought-after content on the web,” says Weitz.

Growth company news

SportsGrid has added Brian Angiolet as a strategic advisor to help guide the team to build the next-gen platform “super-serving the global sports-wagering audience”.

Prophet Exchange has announced a partnership with matched betting outfit ProfitDuel. CEO Dean Sisun told E+M last month the company hoped to add two liquidity providers to the New jersey-based exchange in the coming months.

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Career paths

Better Collective has promoted Simon Hovmand-Stilling to head up the affiliate’s Latin American operation.

Staying with LatAm, Playmaker has promoted Michael Bellom to head of revenue operations, while its subsidiary Futbol Sites named Agustín Gutiérrez Scussel as chief technology officer and Matias Paget as head of digital product.

Christine Lewis has joined Lion Gaming, the next-gen iCasino provider, from live casino supplier Bombay Group.

Newslines

Fubo will ask shareholders to strike provisions related to gaming licensing from its article of association, marking its official exit from betting-related operations. 

GiG: The owners of Polish bookmaker STS have emerged as the second-largest shareholder in GiG, according to a Twitter posting from fellow shareholder Symmetry Invest.

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