{"id":240942,"date":"2022-11-03T15:40:05","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T20:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=240942"},"modified":"2022-11-10T14:33:52","modified_gmt":"2022-11-10T20:33:52","slug":"caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/","title":{"rendered":"Caesars Open to Digital Spinoff, But Prefers Full Ownership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR) is open to the idea of spinning off its digital gaming unit if that corporate action would unlock shareholder value. But the casino operator\u2019s preference is to retain full ownership of that fast-growing subsidiary.<\/p>\n

\"Caesars
Caesars CEO Tom Reeg. He said the company could spin off its sports betting arm but prefers to keep it in-house. (Image: Bloomberg<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the company\u2019s third-quarter earnings conference call earlier this week, Stifel analyst Steven\u00a0 Wieczynski asked Caesars CEO Tom Reeg if the company would mull separating the digital arm. That includes Caesars Sportsbook in the future, noting, “There’s probably a lot of value here with the business being tied so closely to the brick-and-mortar side.\u201d<\/p>\n

I’d say that our competitive advantage here is tying it to the existing brick-and-mortar business and our Caesars Rewards database. And it would be my preference that that remains 100% owned by the parent company,\u201d<\/strong> responded Reeg.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Caesars\u2019 digital operations, including internet casinos, lost just $38 million in the September quarter as revenue surged 120%.<\/a> That\u2019s compared with a year-earlier loss of $164 million. Expectations are in place for the operators\u2019 interactive business to turn profitable in months.<\/p>\n

Caesars Digital Spinoff Won\u2019t Come Lightly<\/h2>\n

Companies often spin off lagging businesses or units that no longer fit with their broader portfolios to create shareholder value. In many instances, that decision comes from pressure from an activist investor.<\/p>\n

\n

Additionally, there\u2019s an element of market timing involved in spin-offs. The parent company usually doesn\u2019t want to separate the unit when market conditions aren\u2019t favorable. For much of this year, the S&P 500 has been mired in a bear market, while pure playing iGaming\/sports wagering stocks such as DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG)<\/a> and Rush Street Interactive (NYSE:RSI) are performing worse than broader equity benchmarks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Currently, market conditions aren\u2019t conducive to spin-offs, and an investor isn\u2019t pressuring Caesars to shed its interactive unit. Reeg is open to it, but it\u2019s not a top priority at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you get to different shareholder bases for the two businesses, there’s a complexity introduced that you see in — you can see that in some of our peers in terms of when you get to different shareholder bases in the same business,\u201d he said on the call. \u201cBut I’d tell you, you know that we’re constantly focused on how do we drive shareholder value. If you get into a market where that ultimately makes sense, and that’s the way to increase the pie for shareholders in total.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Caesars Might Reconsider<\/h2>\n

One reason Caesars could potentially revisit the idea of spinning off its internet casino\/online sportsbook business is a move to reduce debt. However, the company is halting its Las Vegas Strip asset<\/a> sale plans, and it was able to pare liabilities by $400 million in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

\n

On the other hand, not retaining full ownership of the online unit comes with risks. Notably, iGaming is a highly profitable, low-margin endeavor, and with more states possibly entering that fray, operators likely want full control of their internet units. For now, it\u2019s an easy call for Caesars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cCertainly, that\u2019s something we would consider. In the recent market environment, there hasn\u2019t been much value placed on digital assets. So, it\u2019s a very easy decision as we sit here today,\u201d noted Reeg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR) is open to the idea of spinning off its digital gaming unit if that corporate action would unlock shareholder value. But the casino operator\u2019s preference is to retain full ownership of that fast-growing subsidiary. On the company\u2019s third-quarter earnings conference call earlier this week, Stifel analyst Steven\u00a0 Wieczynski asked Caesars CEO Tom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":240943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,19,1074],"tags":[81903,81931,80968],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCaesars Open To Spin-Off Of Digital Unit But Prefers Full Ownership<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Caesars could eventually spin-off iGaming unit, but Reeg prefers to maintain full control.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Caesars Open To Spin-Off Of Digital Unit But Prefers Full Ownership\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Caesars could eventually spin-off iGaming unit, but Reeg prefers to maintain full control.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-03T20:40:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-10T20:33:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/TR.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"855\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@etfgodfather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/\",\"name\":\"Caesars Open To Spin-Off Of Digital Unit But Prefers Full Ownership\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/TR.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-03T20:40:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-10T20:33:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\"},\"description\":\"Caesars could eventually spin-off iGaming unit, but Reeg prefers to maintain full control.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/TR.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/TR.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":855,\"caption\":\"Caesars CEO Tom Reeg. He said the company could spin-off its sports betting arm, but prefers to keep it in-house. (Image: Bloomberg)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Financial\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/financial\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Caesars Open to Digital Spinoff, But Prefers Full Ownership\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\",\"name\":\"Todd Shriber\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Todd Shriber\"},\"description\":\"Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org. Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long\/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better. Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/todd-shriber\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/toddshriber\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/etfgodfather\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/todd-shriber\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Caesars Open To Spin-Off Of Digital Unit But Prefers Full Ownership","description":"Caesars could eventually spin-off iGaming unit, but Reeg prefers to maintain full control.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Caesars Open To Spin-Off Of Digital Unit But Prefers Full Ownership","og_description":"Caesars could eventually spin-off iGaming unit, but Reeg prefers to maintain full control.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2022-11-03T20:40:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-11-10T20:33:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":855,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/TR.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Todd Shriber","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@etfgodfather","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Todd Shriber","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/","name":"Caesars Open To Spin-Off Of Digital Unit But Prefers Full Ownership","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/TR.jpg","datePublished":"2022-11-03T20:40:05+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-10T20:33:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85"},"description":"Caesars could eventually spin-off iGaming unit, but Reeg prefers to maintain full control.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/TR.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/TR.jpg","width":1200,"height":855,"caption":"Caesars CEO Tom Reeg. He said the company could spin-off its sports betting arm, but prefers to keep it in-house. (Image: Bloomberg)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/caesars-open-to-spin-off-of-digital-unit-but-prefers-full-ownership\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Financial","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/financial\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Caesars Open to Digital Spinoff, But Prefers Full Ownership"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85","name":"Todd Shriber","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png","caption":"Todd Shriber"},"description":"Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org. Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long\/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better. Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/todd-shriber","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/toddshriber\/","https:\/\/x.com\/etfgodfather"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/todd-shriber\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}