In September 2020, Caesars signed an agreement to acquire William Hill, in a deal that cost them £2.9bn. They finally closed the deal 3 weeks late due to legal battles on 22nd April.
Initially, Caesars had already made it clear that they were acquiring William Hill solely for their technology and US betting businesses. All the other operators’ assets would be sold, including the UK arm.
Caesars Hopes to Find a Buyer and Close the Deal Within a Year
The CEO of Caesars Tom Reeg stated that the sales process would be initiated before the end of the second quarter of 2021. They then hope to find a buyer by the end of the third quarter and finally close the deal in 2022.
Reeg didn’t divulge the expected sales price for the non-US assets but he did mention that they would make aggressive investments on their new acquisition. Caesars’ CFO, Bret Yunker also divulged that the sale of William Hill’s assets would help them pay their $2bn debt.
William Hill will be rebranded into Caesers and Reeg revealed that one of the reasons why they wouldn’t be holding on to the business was because they planned on leveraging their strengths. He revealed that Caesers already knows what they’re good at and running a digital business that’s not in the US isn’t one of them.
Reeg hopes to sell to an investor who is passionate about non-US businesses and then deploy the money into investments that will drive higher returns.
