Top 5 Global Gambling Stories of 2021

Around the world, 2021 was another frustrating year for gambling, both for players and operators. Instead of talking about growth and new markets, the conversations instead centered around how to survive, and thrive, in a world where an ever evolving pandemic thwarted most efforts. Canada finally approved single game sports betting for it’s citizens, yet other markets took two steps forward and one step back, due in part to Covid. I’ll start out with the 5th topic and move around the globe to find the top 5 gambling stories of 2021. 5. The sale of William Hill’s non-US assets In September of 2020 William Hill agreed to a takeover by Caesars Entertainment for £2.9 billion (approximately $3.9 billion). The deal was finalized in April of 2021. Caesars made it clear that they only had interest in the U.S. operations and particularly in the company’s expertise to help them launch an assault into the fast growing U.S. online sports betting market. They planned to auction off the non-U.S. part of the company, which included the land based British bookmaking shops and the online operations, which catered to customers outside of the United States. While Caesars had no interest in William Hill worldwide, other European operations were chomping at the bit to get their hands on the assets of the 87 year old company given its history, name recognition and connections to important businesses and individuals, including the Royal Palace. Caesars apparently had hoped to recoup at least half of their investment from the sale of the non U.S. part of the company, but a bidding war broke out between Apollo Capital Management, (a U.S. private equity firm who were the main competitor to Caesars in the original bid), CVC Capital Partners (a subsidiary of Citibank), and 888 Holdings, a major Gibraltar based gaming operator with a presence in many jurisdictions, including the United States. When the final gavel fell in September, 888 Holdings won the bid for £2.3 billion. It was apparently higher than Caesars was expecting, meaning that Caesars final price for the U.S. operations was less than $1 billion USD.

https://www.osga.com/online_gaming_articles.php?Top-5-Global-Gambling-Stories-of-2021-29236