How will all this work
Under the current agreement between William Hill Plc and Eldorado Resorts William Hill has the exclusive rights to operate their sport book operations in the United States. This deal extends to their land-based resorts as well their online properties including mobile. This applies to all brick and mortar operation where Eldorado has obtained valid gaming licenses from legal to play states. If the proposed merger between Eldorado Resorts and Caesars gets finalized and goes through. This will give William Hill, the exclusive rights to operate Caesars sports book operations in the United States.
The potential for growth for everyone involved will be huge. This could possibly give control to William Hill of Caesars daily operations while helping Eldorado expand their portfolio and operations. Currently Eldorado has a very small presence in Las Vegas. That’s why the current proposed merger could see their presence grow significantly in and around Las Vegas.
Eldorado Resorts and William Hill
As of January, William Hill and Eldorado Resorts completed their partnership agreement. Under the terms of this deal Eldorado was granted a 20% stake in William Hills sports book operation. In exchange for this William Hill received the exclusive rights to run Eldorado’s facilities in all states where sports betting is legal. The deal was valued at $50 million where Eldorado received $13.4 million in shares to William Hill Plc which is currently being traded on the London Stock Exchange.
Changing the landscape
Besides the enormous amounts of money that will be passed around, if this deal goes through it will create the world’s largest gaming company to date. This would include 60 different resorts across 16 different states. Eldorado currently runs 26 land-based casinos in 12 states while Caesars runs around 40 resorts in 16 different states. This deal should give Eldorado the opportunity to aggressively enter the Las Vegas market.
If the deal is finalized Eldorado CEO Tom Reeg has stated that they may consider selling some of the casinos and resorts currently owned by Caesars. One or two of them possibly in Las Vegas on the strip.
Current agreements
Caesars currently has some existing agreements and partnerships in place with other entities. These deals include a marketing agreement with the National Football League, Turner Sports and ESPN. On top of these agreements back in February of this year Caesars signed a deal with DraftKings, one of the biggest fantasy sports providers in the United States. Moving forward it’s unclear how these existing agreements will factor into the new proposed merger. Only time will tell how things will unfold. What we do know for sure is the new merger will definitely benefit everyone involved and should be a game changer if it goes through.