Good morning and welcome to a bonus newsletter as we take a look at what was said this morning by 888 about its new bauble, William Hill. Then there is OPAP’s H1 results as well as some analysis from Macquarie looking at the US sector ahead of tonight’s NFL kick-off and predicting more M&A.

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888 buys William Hill

The top line

• 888 will pay Caesars Entertainment £2.2bn ($3.04bn) for the entire William Hill international business. 

• The buyout will be funded by £1.64bn of new loans, a £150m revolver facility and via a £500m right issue. 888 will also take on £0.8bn of William Hill debt.

• In 2020 the combined business would have had revenues of $2.5bn and adjusted EBITDA of $464m. The deal has been completed on a historical multiple of 9.2x.

Sweet Caroline: 888 CEO Itai Pazner hailed the “transformational” deal which will give the new entity a combined market share in the UK of 12.3% (based on the figures from the UK Gambling Commission's monthly survey which cover 80% of the market) and 10% shares in core markets Italy and Spain. Pazner noted 888 was “pleasantly surprised” in its due diligence process to find William Hill in the UK had “good momentum” with “perhaps the best marketing campaign around the Euros with effectively the unofficial anthem” as part of its TV ad campaign.

“We were pleasantly surprised to see the business performance growing into this year,” said Pazner. “This is a result of the investment William Hill did in their product and offering in the last 24 months. They are seeing similar experience as us.”

Are you being served? Contrary to some speculation, 888 confirmed it would be retaining the “right-sized” retail estate of circa 1,400 shops and sees opportunities in omni-channel. Pazner noted that “no further rationalization was needed” and added that since the summer reopening, the retail business had returned to “nearly or over” pre-Covid levels. “That reflects the high quality of the shops that remain,” he added.

Pick and mix: 888 said it was committed to future brand positioning in key markets (including the ailing Mr Green which he noted would be retained for its position in the Nordics) with head of strategy Vaughan Lewis talking about matching up the “amazing” 888 with the “iconic” William Hill. “This is a combination that has been discussed many times over the years,” Lewis added. On platform synergies and execution, Pazner said the two companies had “really great components on both sides and the best operational teams.”

Back in the USA: Pazner confirmed that Caesars would retain the rights to the William Hill brand in the U.S. but suggested the experiences of the William Hill international team in the US market would be leveraged when it comes to 888’s own U.S. plans which includes the SI Sportsbook JV.

OPAP H1

The top line

Revenues up 12.2% to €570.1m and Q221 revenues of €395.9m up 120.4%. EBITDA up 99.8% to €102.5m in H1; Q221 EBITDA €143.5m.

Revenues mix in Q2 is 38% lottery, 33.2% betting, 9.1% VLTs, 7.4% instants and 12.3% online casino.

Sticky customers: OPAP said that as well as the easing of lockdown restrictions in mid-April, its revenues for the half were also aided by the full consolidation of Stoximan. Recall, OPAP upped its stake in Stoximan to 84.49% in November and the unit is now considered a full subsidiary. The company said that despite some continued restrictions in retail, it has managed to attract its player base back to its betting and gaming venues.

Macquarie online sector note

Getting comfortable: Ahead of tonight’s NFL kick-off, the analyst at Macquarie note the recent rally in many listed betting and gaming sector names and suggests it will continue as “investors become more comfortable with upcoming revenue estimates given aggressive marketing, superior product and overall better media/betting integration.” “While there will be market share shifts given a growing field of players, we still think the confirmation of a growing TAM is the most important driver of the group,” the analysts added. They also lut the case that the new product additions seen in recent week, especially around same-game parlay (see Kambi news below) would add an extra layer of enthusiasm.

Fanning the flames: Noting the recent spate of deals, the Macquarie team see more scope for M&A pointing out that companies such as Churchill Downs and Fanatics, that currently use third-parties, could look to buy and build while Las vegas Sands “continues to scour the B2B market.” “Tribal operators such as Hard Rock Digital could be another consolidating force. Bottom line, we believe consolidation in the industry is not over,” they added. The Macquarie team flagged one particular name as being of interest.

“We believe investors should also keep an eye on Fanatics, which recently submitted a NY OSB bid,” Macquarie noted. “The company has a strong sports brand, 80m+ customer database, has made major hires including the CFO of IAC and former CEO of FanDuel, and appears well positioned to aggressively pursue share, in our view.”

Newslines

Parlay vous: Ahead of kick-off later today, Kambi says it is now offering its partners a game parlay product allowing players to combine main and prop bets within a single game and across multiple games for the first time. Kambi says this represents an “almost limitless” number of bet options. It said that nearly 50% of sports-betting revenue in the U.S., comes from parlay bets.

What we’re watching

Heads up: A new podcast co-hosted by Fintan Costello from BonusFinder and Jon Bruford at Casino International called the Gambling Files TL;DR.

Share Wagers.com Earnings+More

Calendar

• 9 Sep: Sazka H1

• 13/14 Sep: iDEA/GeoComply seminars

• 16 Sep: New Jersey August GGR

• 22-23 Sep: SBC Summit

Contact us

• Scott Longley scott@clearconcisemedia.com

• Jake Pollard jake@openmediaservices.com