{"id":87252,"date":"2018-09-03T17:00:05","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T00:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=87252"},"modified":"2018-09-03T15:54:10","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T22:54:10","slug":"activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/","title":{"rendered":"Activist Investor Jason Ader Plans to Shake Up Playtech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Activist investor Jason Ader has his sights set on online gambling software giant Playtech. The former Las Vegas Sands (LVS) director has a reputation for investing big in gaming companies before unleashing a wrecking ball into their boardrooms.<\/p>\n

\"Jason
In Playtech, activist investor Jason Ader smells an undervalued company that needs a shot in the arm. The man who helped build LVS into the biggest gaming company in the world can make stock jump just by thinking about it, but expect sparks to fly. (Image: WSJ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Monday, The Times<\/em> revealed Ader had quietly purchased a $100 million-plus stake in the London-based company through his hedge fund firm, SpringOwl Asset Management.<\/p>\n

A former Wall Street analyst, Ader was instrumental, with LVS, in opening up Macau\u2019s gaming market in the 1990s and 2000s, which grew to be the biggest in the world, making LVS the biggest gaming company in the world in the process.<\/p>\n

Ader, Corporate Raider<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Through SpringOwl, Ader specializes in targeting underperforming public companies, then applying pressure to effect changes in corporate structure and governance in order to improve performance and increase value for himself and his clients.<\/p>\n

\n

In 2013, Ader waged a battle for\u00a0a board room shake-up at International Game Technology. A year later, his newly formed SpringOwl acquired the majority stake in bwin.party and engineered its $1.6 billion sale<\/a> to GVC Holdings in 2015.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As a shareholder in PokerStars parent Amaya, now The Stars Group, he was instrumental in publicly persuading the board to sever ties to its founder, former chairman and CEO David Baazov, who was accused, but not convicted<\/a>, of securities fraud.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Ader confirmed to The Times<\/em> that SpringOwl had bought over $100 million in equity over the past few weeks.<\/p>\n

Playtech Wobbles<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In June 2017, Playtech\u2019s shares were at an all-time high. The company had a market cap of around $4.6 billion and was targeting a position on the FTSE 100 index.<\/p>\n

But last November, the board was forced to issue a profit warning due to a sudden slowdown in growth, which it largely attributed to an online gambling crackdown by the Malaysian government that decimated its client base one of its primary Asian markets.<\/p>\n

\n

Playtech\u2019s stock has plunged by more than 50 percent since and the board faced a shareholder revolt at its AGM earlier in the summer. Last week it reported a slump in its underlying half-year profits, which it blamed\u00a0on fierce competition in China.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A gaming giant with potentially undervalued stock and allegedly shaky corporate governance ticks all the boxes for Ader, who is believed to have concerns over chairman Alan Jackson\u2019s continued tenure.<\/p>\n

Ader told The Times<\/em> Playtech needed to \u201cimprove its reputation, governance and stock price\u201d and was looking forward to \u201ccontinuing a dialogue\u201d with the board.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Activist investor Jason Ader has his sights set on online gambling software giant Playtech. The former Las Vegas Sands (LVS) director has a reputation for investing big in gaming companies before unleashing a wrecking ball into their boardrooms. On Monday, The Times revealed Ader had quietly purchased a $100 million-plus stake in the London-based company […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":87256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,10,19],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nActivist Investor Jason Ader Plans to Shake Up Playtech<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jason Alder, activist investor and former LVS exec who engineered sale of Bwin to GVC, has bought a $100 million stake in recently troubled online gambling software giant Playtech.\" \/>\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\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Activist Investor Jason Ader Plans to Shake Up Playtech\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jason Alder, activist investor and former LVS exec who engineered sale of Bwin to GVC, has bought a $100 million stake in recently troubled online gambling software giant Playtech.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/\" \/>\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=\"2018-09-04T00:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-03T22:54:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/alder.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1242\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/\",\"name\":\"Activist Investor Jason Ader Plans to Shake Up Playtech\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/alder.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-04T00:00:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-03T22:54:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Jason Alder, activist investor and former LVS exec who engineered sale of Bwin to GVC, has bought a $100 million stake in recently troubled online gambling software giant Playtech.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/alder.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/alder.jpg\",\"width\":1242,\"height\":810,\"caption\":\"In Playtech, activist investor Jason Ader smells an undervalued company that needs a shot in the arm. Expect sparks to fly in the boardroom. (Image: Wall Street Journal)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/#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\":\"Activist Investor Jason Ader Plans to Shake Up Playtech\"}]},{\"@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\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"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-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Activist Investor Jason Ader Plans to Shake Up Playtech","description":"Jason Alder, activist investor and former LVS exec who engineered sale of Bwin to GVC, has bought a $100 million stake in recently troubled online gambling software giant Playtech.","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\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Activist Investor Jason Ader Plans to Shake Up Playtech","og_description":"Jason Alder, activist investor and former LVS exec who engineered sale of Bwin to GVC, has bought a $100 million stake in recently troubled online gambling software giant Playtech.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2018-09-04T00:00:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-09-03T22:54:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1242,"height":810,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/alder.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/","name":"Activist Investor Jason Ader Plans to Shake Up Playtech","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/alder.jpg","datePublished":"2018-09-04T00:00:05+00:00","dateModified":"2018-09-03T22:54:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Jason Alder, activist investor and former LVS exec who engineered sale of Bwin to GVC, has bought a $100 million stake in recently troubled online gambling software giant Playtech.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/alder.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/alder.jpg","width":1242,"height":810,"caption":"In Playtech, activist investor Jason Ader smells an undervalued company that needs a shot in the arm. Expect sparks to fly in the boardroom. (Image: Wall Street Journal)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/activist-investor-jason-ader-plans-to-shake-up-playtech\/#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":"Activist Investor Jason Ader Plans to Shake Up Playtech"}]},{"@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\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","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-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87252"}],"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\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}