Two weeks after the record-breaking 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) wrapped in Las Vegas, and one day after its CEO said in an earnings call that the company would sell its “non-core” assets, Caesars Entertainment announced a blockbuster, sale on Thursday. The world-renowned casino-entertainment provider agreed to sell the entire WSOP brand to the parent company of GGPoker for $500 million.
In a statement, Caesars said NSUS Group Incorporated would pay $250 million up front, with the remaining $250 million due five years after the closing date of the transaction, which is expected by the end of the year.
Caesars “secured the right from NSUS to continue hosting” the iconic WSOP live tournament series from its properties in Las Vegas for the next 20 years. Land-based poker rooms in casinos operated by Caesars will continue to have WSOP branding, and Caesars properties will also continue to host live WSOP Circuit (WSOP-C) events.
The wording of the announcement indicates Caesars will continue “hosting” the summer festival in Las Vegas and the WSOP-C events will continue to be held at Caesars properties, but the press release stops short of saying who will actually run the live events moving forward.
What the Deal Means for GGPoker
GGPoker sent a record 1,124 players to the 2024 WSOP Main Event, up from 744 last year. A record 10,112 players entered this year’s edition of the flagship tournament, meaning about 11% of them gained entry through GGPoker.
Most of the players (732) won their seats through satellites on the GGPoker dot-com network, while 59 qualified through the segregated GGPoker Ontario online poker room. There were 233 players that purchased their entry to the Main Event through the GGPoker platform, while another 100 players qualified through GGPoker’s subscription-based social online poker platform, Club GG.
GGPoker also played a big role with last year’s WSOP Paradise tournament in the Bahamas, awarding $425,000 in bonuses through a parlay offer that also gave extra prizes to players with deep runs at WSOP 2023 and WSOP Paradise.
How Caesars Digital Will Be Affected
WSOP-branded poker rooms in Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania currently run on a new version of 888poker’s Poker 8 software.
Under the deal, Caesars Digital will receive a license from NSUS to continue operating WSOP-branded online poker rooms in Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania “for the foreseeable future.” The first three of the aforementioned states are members of WSOP Online, a three-state online poker network that formed in May after a key software upgrade.
But in its statement Thursday, Caesars said its interactive segment “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.”
Whether that means Caesars is prevented from expanding the WSOP brand to other states (like West Virginia) remains unclear, but going forward any such move would likely need approval from NSUS.
That said, it didn’t sound like GGPoker was against the idea of expanding the WSOP brand — far from it. “NSUS intends to expand WSOP worldwide, positioning it at the forefront of poker’s growth,” NSUS Group CEO Michael Kim said in the joint statement with Caesars.
“We will leverage GGPoker’s cutting-edge technology and industry expertise to create an exciting future for WSOP, ensuring players have an increasingly improved, safe, and seamless poker experience,” Kim said indicating GGPoker may be looking to expand WSOP live poker beyond its current North American and European operations.
But that expansion seems unlikely for its online poker operations. Consider that for its Ontario online poker room (where WSOP and GGPoker have been partners since the regulated market launch in April 2022), GGPoker recently dropped all WSOP branding from its website, software and social media accounts.
GGPoker a Shared Liquidity Advocate
The sale probably shouldn’t come as a surprise since GGPoker has made it plain for years that they were interested in entering the US Online Poker market.
Last April, GGPoker Global Managing Director Sarne Lightman hinted in an exclusive with Poker Industry PRO that a deal was near. “You can expect us to share some news on this front soon,” he told PRO at the time.
Lightman also revealed that the company was concerned that the US online poker scene wouldn’t expand without GGPoker in the mix and taking an active leadership role with state regulators — specifically, that they should open their jurisdictions to allow for shared liquidity.
With GGPoker leading the charge advocating for shared liquidity, it’s reasonable to assume that the first jurisdiction they’ll focus on is the Pennsylvania online poker market — the largest state where real money online poker is legal, but there’s no shared liquidity. It’s also home to WSOP PA, which would benefit tremendously if the Keystone State joined the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA).
MSIGA is a multi-state compact that supports online poker by allowing operators to combine their player pools in MSIGA states and share liquidity. Its members are Delaware, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, and West Virginia.
It’s important to note that GGPoker opposes multi-jurisdictional pacts like MSIGA. Rather, the company supports open shared liquidity on a global scale that includes all markets.
What Caesars Said About Its Assets
During an earnings call Tuesday to discuss Q2 2024, Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg said it had non-core assets to sell but did elaborate. He was not talking about WSOP.
“As I have said previously, there are non-core, non-operating casino assets in the portfolio that I think could trade at a significantly accretive multiple for us, and you should expect us to try to take advantage of those opportunities,” Reeg told analysts during the Q&A portion of the call.
Eric Hession, president of Caesars Sports and Online Gaming, added that the WSOP events in Las Vegas have been a consistent moneymaker.
“The online poker does okay, but doesn’t make a huge amount of money,” Hession said. “The royalty streams and the land-based casinos, where the economics are, makes between $20 million and $25 million for the year as a whole. That’s an EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization] number.”