Caesars Entertainment has announced it will sell its World Series of Poker brand to NSUS Group Inc., whomever that might be.
The sale is valued at a hefty $500 million, including $250 million in cash and a $250 million promissory note due five years after the transaction’s closing date.
As a part of the deal, Caesars gets to host the WSOPs live tournament series at Horseshoe and Paris for the next 20 years, at least.
The official announcement of the deal says, “NSUS Group Inc. is a leading investment group in the iGaming space known for successfully launching several groundbreaking ventures, including the innovative online poker room, GGPoker.”
While iGaming isn’t legal in most of America, that’s likely to change in the next few years.
NSUS (pronounced “answers,” no, really) Group, we hear, plans to focus on making the most of the WSOP brand internationally.
Basically, it’s a big gamble. Caesars earns in the neighborhood of $20-25 million a year from the WSOP tournament directly, mostly for broadcast rights. That means NSUS paid the equivalent of 22 years of WSOP profit, all at once.
Caesars Entertainment has wrangled a deal that gives them a big influx of cash without giving up anything for decades. Its brick-and-mortar poker rooms will continue to feature WSOP branding.
Caesars destinations will also have preferential rights to host live WSOP Circuit events going forward.
There were additional words we sort of just skimmed over, “Caesars Digital will also receive a license from NSUS to continue operating its recently upgraded WSOP Online real-money poker business in Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania for the foreseeable future but will otherwise be restricted from operating online peer-to-peer real-money poker operations for a specified period of time and subject to certain exceptions.”
A Caesars official said they’ll use the WSOP sale windfall to pay down some debt ($12.4 billion as of June 30, 2024) and probably buy back some stock, along with giving Cleopatra a fresh coat of paint before bringing her back at a more accessible height at Caesars Palace. (It’s possible we just made up that last part.)
In case you have no idea what we’re talking about, here’s a handy blurb about the World Series of Poker provided by Caesars Entertainment: “The World Series of Poker is the largest, richest and most prestigious gaming event in the world, having awarded more than $4 billion in prize money and awarding prestigious gold bracelets, globally recognized as the sport’s most coveted prize. Featuring a comprehensive slate of tournaments in every major poker variation, the WSOP is poker’s longest-running tournament dating back to 1970. In 2024, the event attracted 229,553 entrants to Paris Las Vegas and Horseshoe Las Vegas and awarded more than $438 million in prize money, both all-time records for the series.”
The World Series of Poker got its start at Binion’s, downtown.
Caesars Entertainment (then Harrah’s Entertainment) owned Binion’s Horseshoe for 15 minutes in 2004 and took the Horseshoe and World Series of Poker brands with them when they sold the classic casino. That’s why Binion’s is just called Binion’s today.
The World Series of Poker was played at Rio for many years, then moved to Horseshoe (formerly Bally’s) and Paris on the Las Vegas Strip.
This year’s Main Event ended July 17, 2024, with Jonathan Tomayo (also the name of a delicious fry sauce) winning $10 million in prize money.
What does the sale of the WSOP brand mean to the typical poker player? Absolutely nothing.
We probably should’ve mentioned that up front so you could’ve saved three minutes of reading.
The sale won’t have any impact on one’s experience in Caesars Entertainment poker rooms.
In 20 years, NSUS Group could theoretically move the WSOP tournament, but why would they?
The sale of the WSOP brand is a win for Caesars Entertainment. One top executive described the deal as “finding change under a couch cushion.”
We’ll let you know if it turns out to be the right decision in 20 years, when we all would’ve had flying cars if A.I. hadn’t wiped out Humanity because it was having an off day.