Bally’s Company (BALY) is the outdated Twin River Worldwide Holdings (outdated ticker, TRWH) that started with two casinos in Rhode Island, then actually beginning in 2019 by way of an aggressive sequence of sophisticated acquisitions created a sprawling omni-channel gaming firm that seems effectively positioned to learn from the long run progress in iCasino and on-line sports activities betting. The architect of this transformation is Soo Kim of Customary Common, he’s the Chairman of the Board and his funding agency owns greater than 20% of the shares. On 1/25/22, Standard General submitted a non-binding offer to buy Bally’s for $38 per share (shares commerce for $35-$36).
The provide seems very opportunistic because the financial system is reopening, the items of Bally’s serial acquisitions are beginning to come collectively however earlier than their true earnings energy are absolutely obvious, all whereas the market has offered off gaming shares. Seemingly Kim is solely highlighting the shares are low-cost, he is finest positioned to grasp the worth of the corporate, and nothing additional involves fruition on the administration buyout entrance. Nevertheless, now that the acquisition technique is maturing and the necessity for a public foreign money may not be as necessary, he might really wish to take it personal and negotiate the next value with the board. However at present costs, I agree shares are low-cost and could be completely happy to personal the inventory absent a deal.
This is a slide from their investor presentation displaying the tempo of acquisitions, nearly the entire regional casinos had been acquired in 2019-2020, many the results of compelled divestures when bigger gaming friends consolidated. This allowed Bally’s to choose properties up on a budget and construct a nationwide footprint wherein to standup a cellular gaming presence. I typically favor the regional casinos to vacation spot ones as they’re extra secure and proved that all through covid. Bally’s Corp purchased the “Bally’s” model identify from Caesars (CZR), they’re within the strategy of rebranding all of their regional casinos to the Bally’s model, the outdated CZR’s owned Bally’s in Las Vegas (the unique MGM Grand) is being rebranded to a Horseshoe property (and Bally’s Corp is shopping for the Tropicana Las Vegas from GLPI).
The 2 non-physical casinos offers actually value calling out are:
- On 11/19/20, Bally’s entered into an agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group (SGPI) to rebrand their regional sports activities networks (the 21 they acquired from FOXA within the DIS deal) from Fox to Bally’s, in change Sinclair received inventory and warrants in Bally’s, Bally’s additionally should commit a sure share of promoting spend on Sinclair’s networks. The wire chopping development is well-known, RSN valuations are down (Sinclair’s RSN’s debt commerce at distressed ranges), sports activities is usually the explanation cited for wire chopping as a result of their content material is so costly. However from Bally’s angle, this deal places their model proper within the face of essentially the most engaged sports activities followers, even when RSNs are dropping subscribers, they’re unlikely to be dropping those that Bally’s is focusing on. Whereas Caesars, MGM or Draft Kings are spending large on the NFL on the nationwide stage, Bally’s has as an alternative focused the extra engaged native fan, one which may have a extra frequent/year-round betting cadence than simply the NFL season.
- On 4/13/21, Bally’s announced a combination with Gamesys Group (GYS in London) for money and inventory, the deal closed on 10/1/21. Gamesys is a UK based mostly on-line gaming firm (on line casino technique versus sports activities betting, largely UK and Asian markets) that does each bingo and iCasino video games, the thought is to pair the profitable Gamesys iCasino providing (the place authorized within the U.S.) with the Bally’s sports activities betting/Sinclair providing to create an built-in expertise. Usually you want a bodily presence in a state to get a web-based license, so to ensure that Gamesys to completely entry the U.S. market they wanted to associate with somebody like Bally’s who due to their acquisition spree, have a presence in many of the fascinating gaming jurisdictions. To fund the rollout of iCasino and on-line sports activities betting within the U.S., each the prevailing Gamesys worldwide enterprise and the U.S. regional on line casino enterprise are extremely money generative. Bally’s expects to spend 20% of FCF for the subsequent a number of years on the rollout, however they’re taking a extra measured tempo than different opponents with regards to promotions, and so forth.
Apparently, the CEO of Gamesys turned the CEO of Bally’s, signaling an emphasis on bringing the profitable Gamesys mannequin to america. Additionally, the administration of Gamesys elected to take inventory within the merger as an alternative of money, at present costs that seems to be a mistake as the worth of these shares is roughly half what the money provide was a number of months in the past, however reveals their confidence in having the ability to replicate their success right here.
Beneath are all of the contingent fairness securities which were issued together with varied acquisitions during the last two years (observe the Gamesys acquisition shares are within the share rely at present, the others typically aren’t in reported numbers):
Listed below are their Q3 2021 numbers annualized (Bally’s hasn’t reported This fall numbers but or offered 2022 steering):
And to point out probably extra normalized numbers, listed below are what the Bally’s regional casinos did in 2019:
If we again out the company expense on the above for an apples to apples with the Q3 numbers, we get $317MM versus the $359MM (put up hire) executed in Q3, for simplicity, let’s simply say normalized is someplace in between there, a mean could be $343MM. Add Gamesys (fairly constant grower over time) and subtract the company expense will get us $633 of EBITDA towards a $5.9B EV (utilizing 68 million shares, $3.445B of debt excluding capitalized leases) for an 9.4x EBITDA a number of (or a 14% levered FCF yield utilizing administration’s estimate) that provides no worth to the cellular app alternative within the U.S. (at the moment loss making). Once more, there are lots of transferring components, I could possibly be flawed, please double test, however I believe that is a fairly affordable value to pay for a corporation that’s probably in play and/or at an inflection level of their enterprise mannequin.
Disclosure: I personal shares of BALY
