Caesars Considering Selling I-Gaming BusinessWSJ Reports That Deal Could Be Worth More Than $4B |
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Nevada-based casino operator Caesars Entertainment is considering selling its online gaming division, Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE), after receiving unsolicited offers of around $4 billion, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
The acclaimed World Series of Poker is under the ownership of CIE.
According to the report, CIE has annual sales of nearly $800 million and had first quarter revenue growth of nearly 30 percent. CIE dominates the social casino games market, where the vast majority of its revenue is generated. As of 2014, CIE led the way with more than 20 percent of the market, followed by IGT’s DoubleDown Casino with 11 percent. Caesars leapfrogged Zynga in July 2013 for the top spot in the social casino games market.
Largely thanks to Facebook, social casino games have grown to a $3.4 billion market and they could be worth $4.4 billion by 2017, according to Eilers Research.
Other CIE social casino game offerings include CaesarsBingo.com, Bingoblitz, House of Fun and Slotomania, which is the company’s most successful. In addition to the Facebook relationship, CIE has partnerships with Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft.
Groups interested in CIE, which also controls the WSOP-branded online poker site that takes real-money deposits in Nevada and New Jersey, include financial firms and gaming, media and entertainment companies, the report said.
According to the WSJ, the WSOP isn’t what the deal is “centered on,” but rather CIE’s mobile-games business. Traditional online casino gambling for real money is only legal in three U.S. states, which has drastically trimmed previous estimates for the regulated American online gambling market.
“We want to hear what people have to say, for sure,” Mitch Garber, CEO of CIE, told the WSJ.
CIE was formed by Caesars in May 2009 “to take the great brands in the Caesars portfolio and maximize their value in today’s digital, online world,” according to the company’s website.
The news comes less than two weeks before the start of the annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. The operating arm of Caesars, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., is currently in the midst of a complicated Chapter 11 bankruptcy that involves $18 billion worth of debt.
Caesars the parent company could potentially file for bankruptcy as well.
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