• Private equity house Brightstar snaps up gaming provider AGS.

• In +More: Sportradar tennis agreement, ESPN Bet golf deal.

• Bragg Gaming says it’s BAU despite strategic review.

• In shares watch, a look at PointsBet’s post-divi distribution lows.

You well-heeled big wheel.

Brightstar snaps up AGS

Sizzlin’: The land-based and iCasino gaming provider AGS has reached an agreement with Brightstar Capital Partners to be bought for $1.1bn. The $12.50-a-share all-cash offer represents a 40% premium on yesterday’s closing share price. The shares rose over 26% in early trading yesterday.

• The deal is valued at a multiple of ~5.7x FY24 revenues but, as the B Riley team noted, with estimates likely on the conservative side the multiple could yet be lower. 

• It is expected to close in the second half of 2025 depending on regulatory approvals.

Seeking inspiration: In September 2022 AGS was involved in a failed $370m merger with fellow listed gaming supplier Inspired Entertainment. Analysts were doubtful Inspired would return with a counteroffer, with the Truist team noting Inspired’s recent comments that M&A was a low priority.

• Note, Inspired are set to report later today, Friday. The B Riley analysts said they believed the relatively low multiple could encourage other bidders.

No comment: AGS reported its Q1 earnings yesterday, Thursday, but the earnings press release and the accompanying call were canceled. In the 10-Q posted with the SEC, the company said revenues for the quarter rose nearly 13% to $96m while adj. EBITDA was up 20% to $44m. It had long-term debt of $532m.

• The EGM segment – where Rakin’ Bacon! and Rakin’ Bacon Deluxe are the top titles – generated 90% of total revenues.

Bright sparks: The New York-based Brightstar has over $4.1bn of assets under management and was founded in 2015 by Andrew Weinberg. He said AGS’ “innovative approach to game development” provided a platform for growth.

• On the ticket: Macquarie acted on behalf of AGS while Jefferries, Barclays and Citizens advised Brightstar.

Public letdown: The team at Truist suggested management at AGS, led by CEO David Lopez, had become frustrated with the stock’s relative underperformance and didn’t see its recent turnaround and ongoing fundamental outperformance as being “sufficiently reflected” in the share price.

All roads lead to Rome: The move follows the news of IGT/Everi’s $6.2bn merger proposal in February. B Riley suggested there was a chance that a newly private AGS could look at acquisitions in future.

• “We would not be surprised to see AGS re-IPO after growing and further strategic positioning into a better stock market environment,” they added.

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Ace: Sportradar has signed a long-term official data and audiovisual rights deal with the UTR Pro Tennis Tour. The deal starts in January 2025 and will see the sports-tech company capture deep data from more than 20,000 PTT matches per year. 

• Diary note: Sportradar reports its Q1s next Wednesday.

Penn’s ESPN Bet is to become the official sports-betting partner of the PGA Tour under a new multi-year agreement that runs through to 2026.

Stake.com said it saw more than $100m in total handle on the Indian Premier League cricket season, which began in March. The largely crypto-based operator said it was targeting the country in the wake of other operators exiting the market following the imposition of the goods and services tax.

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In the Token Word this week, Coinbase is pushing on with its lobbying efforts ahead of November, Block is putting its faith in Bitcoin as the internet’s native currency and an arrest is made after the ZKasino rug pull.

The Token Word

Coinbase takes its case to the voters

Coinbase is pushing on with its lobbying efforts ahead of November. In loose change: BTC-e operator pleads guilty. Block is putting its faith in Bitcoin as the internet’s native currency. Robinhood receives SEC notice over crypto trading. Arrest made after…

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2 days ago · The Token Word

• Head of Legal – Malta 

• Senior Product Manager – Checkout Flow – Remote

• Head of Product, Risk and Fraud – Costa Rica

Bragg review progresses

Business as unusual: CEO and chair of Bragg Gaming Matevž Mazij said the company would continue to focus on growing the business, even as he revealed on the call with analysts that the board’s special committee has taken on Oakvale Capital and law firm Blake in Toronto to advise on its strategic review.

• Noting the backdrop of recent M&A activity, Mazij said the company had seen “corresponding increased interest” in Bragg. 

• He added that possible strategic alternatives might include a sale, merger, acquisition or additional investment. 

Render unto Caesars: In terms of Q1 trading, Bragg supplied its second exclusive game for Caesars Sportsbook and Caesars Palace over the period in Michigan and New Jersey. In total, Bragg released 19 new exclusive games in Q1 including seven in-house.

• Also over the period, the company began supplying games via a new distribution agreement with Light & Wonder.

Earnings in brief

Mohegan Sun’s far east Inspire venture in South Korea opened in early March as the tribal operator completed its first international development, helping to push revenues for Q2 of the company’s financial year up 13% to $462m. However, adj. EBITDA was down 18% to $84m.

• In online, the company also launched in Pennsylvania post-quarter end.

• Separately, it was announced that Mohegan Sun is handing over casino operations at Virgin Las Vegas back to Virgin.

Century Casinos failed to buck the poor regionals trend with revenues of $136m missing consensus by 3%, while adj. EBITDA of $21m was short by 17% due to the bad weather at the start of the year. On the bright side, the company saw the launch of the new Riverview Hotel in Cape Girardeau in Missouri.

GAN: Revenue fell 13% to $30.7m as the company’s Coolbet B2C offering suffered from lower sports margins and reduced customer activity. Its revenues fell 23% to $18.3m. However, B2B revenues rose 9% to $12.3m.

• CEO Seamus Gill maintained the buyout by Sega Sammy remained on track for completion either in the latter half of 2024 or early 2025 after receiving “overwhelming” shareholder approval.

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The shares week

What’s your point? The fever of speculation around the Australian sports-betting sector in the wake of the BlueBet/Betr merger news would appear to have passed quite quickly. While it was not necessarily in the original conversation, PointsBet was still subject to speculation that it could be involved in some form of roll-up of challenger brands.

• However, the share price in the past month tells a different story, with PointsBet down over 43% as of Thursday’s share price.

• The technical reason for the fall, however, was the second and final distribution of the cash to shareholders from the $225m sale of PointsBet US to Fanatics on April 29.

🙃 PointsBet unloved

Sector watch – social gaming

Money down: DoubleDown Interactive, which reported earlier this week, said it was its social casino game that continued to be the driver for revenue growth, with the company saying it was growing monetization of its core customers via greater engagement and retention.

• Fill or kill: CEO In Keuk Kim was keen to stress that DoubleDown maintained a disciplined approach on newly developed games.

• When we undertake these new game launches it is to ensure we are deploying our capital and expertise in a manner that creates additional value for sale hurdles,” he said. 

• “If that proves not to be the case, we have demonstrated that we will quickly move on.” 

C-minus suite: Also reporting this week was Playtika, which showed YoY decrease in both revenue and adj. EBITDA, down 2% to $651m and 1.7% to $186m respectively. On the earnings call, CEO Robert Antokol said the company was responding by making some changes to its leadership team including eliminating the chief revenue and chief operating officer roles.

• Boss baby: Antokol said the changes would simplify Playtika’s reporting structure, but also enhance his own direct involvement in both revenue generation, and strategic and operational management. 

• “This ensures we are as agile and effective as possible,” he added.

Route one: Direct-to-consumer was the bright spot with revenues up 13% YoY to $172m. The strength in D2C was led by existing games, including Bingo Blitz, Slotomania and Caesars Casino. 

• Antokol said the company expected to see incremental revenue contributions from D2C in the coming quarters. 

Calendar

• May 14: Flutter

• May 15: Sportradar, Aristocrat

• May 16: Gambling.com

• May 17: XLMedia

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