• Dissatisfaction within and without Entain reaches fever pitch.

• DAZN seeks $1bn to fund global expansion.

• Penn might need a New York license to hit ESPN Bet market share targets.

• Red Rocks’ Durango gets off to a “buzzing” start.

• The startup focus is sports-betting software provider Odditt.

Climb on the back and we'll go for a ride in the sky.

Entain disquiet

Insider briefings are “devastating" for the future of the CEO.

This one for the sunseekers: Entain is sure to face more pressure from restive shareholders after what one source termed a “brutal” article in the FT late last week, which depicted a company having lost its way amid allegations of excessive use of private jets by management.

Now is the winter of our discount tents: The article suggested the £615m resolution of the deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the UK’s tax authorities had failed to relieve the pressure for change at the top as it cited sources from both within and without indicating discontent over the leadership of CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen.

• The report included a quote from an unnamed institutional investor railing at Nygaard-Andersen’s “headlong rush into M&A”.

• It added a quote suggesting the CEO had “showed a lack of awareness and general understanding of the economics of the business and shareholder sentiment”.

Get active: The comments echoed criticism from activist shareholder Eminence Capital in the summer, which expressed “outrage” over the £750m bid for Polish bookmaker STS. More recently, two more activist hedge funds – Sachem Head Capital Management and Dendur Capital – similarly expressed concern over the performance of the company.

Cookie crumbs in the Rolls: They are unlikely to be appeased by the detail within the FT piece. The report suggested that during the pandemic Nygaard-Andersen and chair Barry Gibson used private jets for board meetings in Gibraltar, but added that since then Nygaard-Andersen has also utilized private jets for visiting the US.

• The paper reported that staff within the finance and audit teams have nicknamed Nygaard-Andersen “Private Jette”.

• The FT also suggested Entain maintained a £3m-a-year sponsorship deal with F1 team McLaren despite the marketing team at PartyPoker deciding not to renew. 

• It said Nygaard-Andersen had attended “several” Grand Prix’s this year.

I wish to report a murder: One source told E+M the piece was a “complete assassination”. “You know people are after you when they talk about private jets, attendance at Grand Prix and going back home to Copenhagen at weekends.”

• Questions are sure to be raised externally about how long Nygaard-Andersen stays in post.

• However, sources pointed out this is not a great time to be seeking a new CEO given the legally binding DPA provisions and continued rumors surrounding the future of the BetMGM JV.

• CFO Rob Wood was mentioned as a potential interim CEO but, with his fingerprints on the M&A strategy as much as anyone, he might not be seen as a long-term replacement.

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DAZN is exploring a $1bn fund raise as it seeks to accelerate its global expansion. According to Bloomberg, the Len Blavatnik-owned streaming company has held early-stage conversations with advisers and suggested Saudi Arabia might be interested in taking a strategic stake. 

• DAZN holds some of the streaming rights to the Saudi Pro League and recently broadcast the Riyadh Season of boxing matches, including a fight with former heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua.

• However, it failed to capture any English Premier League packages last week.

Flutter has confirmed its US ticker will be FLUT when it achieves its dual-listing in January.

What we’re reading

X marks the spot: Here is where Las Vegas Sands plans to build a casino in Dallas, says local D Magazine, which digs into the records around a recent real estate purchase.

Career paths

Maksym Liashko has resigned as CEO of Parimatch and managing partner of Energame, the group’s management company. Energame has launched a search for a new CEO.

FSB Technologies has appointed Craig Artley as CFO after a stint with Sporting Group.

ESPN’s New York choices

Empire state building: Penn’s ability to hit its stated goal of hitting 10% market share in OSB and 8% in iCasino will possibly be dependent on whether the company is able to gain a license in New York, according to the analysts at Jefferies.

• The team noted that in recent management commentary the company said it intended to purchase a license from one of the lower-tier operators in the state.

• Recall, as per November’s data, Bally’s, WynnBet, PointsBet, Rush Street and Resorts World Bet share 9% of GGR between them.

The most likely seller is WynnBet, which has given up most of its OSB operations apart from a handful of states, while the other option for Penn would be to pursue an incremental license from the state. The Jefferies team suggested both options have “implications”.

• A purchase would further expand the investment and establish a “higher return hurdle while a direct license would reduce the tax rate by rule and would likely take longer”, the team said.

Analyst takes

Red Rock Resorts: The management team can congratulate themselves on having “nailed it” when it comes to the Durango Casino, which opened last week, suggested the team at CBRE. “The new casino brings much-needed entertainment to a neighborhood that has been starved for action,” said the analysts. “Moreover, Durango has all the hallmarks of a high-volume Locals casino.”

• While they caution about reading too much into the opening day’s trade, they said the new property was “buzzing all day and night”.

• Even considering the midday opening time, they also noted the property “didn’t over index” on retirees. 

• Indeed, they said the indoor/outdoor sportsbook “should help the property lean into the area’s younger demographic base”.

VICI: Looking at last week’s deal to provide $212m in mezzanine financing to water park operator Kalahari, the team at JMP said the deal adds to the largely gaming REIT’s “experiential” portfolio, which now accounts for ~5% of VICI’s total portfolio as measured by dollar investment value.

• Moreover, this diversification has a lot of runway, with the current investments only touching a “small portion” of a fragmented total addressable market.

• As such it presents a “plethora of additional investment opportunities, particularly as the backdrop remains unstable”.

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Startup funding news

Texas-based micro-betting provider nVenue has sold a stake in the business to the NBA for an undisclosed sum. The stake comes a year after the company was selected for the NBA Launchpad incubator program.

• As part of the deal, head of gaming and new business ventures at the NBA, Scott Kaufman-Ross, will join the nVenue board as an observer.

• nVenue CEO Kelly Pracht said the company’s offering filled a gap, particularly with basketball.

Startup focus – Odditt

Slam dunk: The US-based sports-betting software provider was founded in 2022 by Matt Bresler, who quit university to start the venture. An avid basketball fan, Bresler noticed “recurring inconsistencies in in-game NBA betting odds” – a discovery, he says, that led to the creation of Odditt. 

• Bresler is advised by Stephen Crystal, founder of SCCG Management, and his father Joel, who has decades of experience leading corporations and new ventures.

Backboard: Largely bootstrapped, this year Odditt received a small, strategic investment from SCCG to help get its beta product to market. 

• Going forward, the company is seeking seed investment to expand its initial product into additional basketball and other sports and for development of new products.

Free throw: In-game NBA betting odds are some of the most “challenging betting odds for sportsbooks to set”, says Bresler. Operators have to adjust their odds constantly in response to market conditions, changing game events and liabilities. Odditt makes things “easier for in-game traders” by providing an odds screen integrated with custom insights, tools and predictions at the market and individual sportsbook levels. 

• “Odditt leverages proprietary predictive models and historical in-game odds data, pointing traders to the games and betting markets that pose the greatest risk to each sportsbook in real time,” he explains.

• The reaction from the industry has been extremely positive, from operators and bettors alike. “The product is perfect for anyone doing in-game trading or betting,” he boasts. 

• “Both sides see a great need for an in-game product that provides actionable and sportsbook-level insights and automates key parts of the in-game trading process.” 

While the B2B market is Odditt’s largest area of focus, it is also looking for partners to help build out a B2C version of its product.

Four-point play: Odditt’s immediate focus is on “building an initial track record with its product and delivering significant value to its earliest customers”; with the goal to become the “go-to in-game tool for sportsbook and betting syndicate traders alike”. 

• Longer term, the provider plans to develop innovative bet types and betting products for sportsbooks to offer their customers.

• An exit for Odditt could come in a number of ways, Bresler adds. “The most probable would be acquisition by one of the incumbent odds-screen providers… A larger betting syndicate or sportsbook could also acquire Odditt to gain a substantial competitive advantage in the in-game odds space.”

Growth company news

Inside The Pocket has partnered with HotSpotBet to launch HotSpotJogos, a localized website offering F2P games, as it looks to boost its customer acquisition and retention in Brazil.

HITSqwad has teamed up with Black Cow Technology to utilize the latter’s OGA Jackpots platform to build custom, secure jackpot engines that support unique in-game and reporting features across its portfolio of jackpot slots and games.

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Calendar

• Jan 18: Flutter trading statement

• Feb 6-8: ICE London

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