Eldorado’s merger with Caesars Entertainment is still underway, meaning both companies have to let go of some of their properties to make it work. One of the properties that Eldorado decided to sell is in Shreveport, La., and Maverick Gaming was first in line to purchase it from them. The two companies agreed on the price of $230 million for it.
One of the reasons why Eldorado and Caesars are merging is that Caesars Entertainment Corp. has had a lot of financial problems, including a $17.3 billion debt. It was Eldorado that jumped in to save the day, promising to pay off Caesar’s debt once the merger takes place.
However, the amount that Caesars owes is not small, so Eldorado’s officials had to come up with a way to collect money. One of them is to sell some of their properties to other operators.
After all, once merged, the two companies will still have a huge number of casinos and hotels all over the US. In fact, they need to sell some of the properties to scale down their business, which would be very difficult to control.
The transaction will take place in the first half of 2020, and Tom Reeg, CEO of Eldorado, is quite content with how things have been working out lately. He stated that selling Eldorado Shreveport was in the plan as part of their effort to reduce Caesar’s debt.
Moreover, he added that he expected the transaction of Caesar’s to take place in the upcoming six-month period.
Maverick Gaming Enters A New Market
Maverick Gaming seems to have made an important move as a part of its strategy to enter a new region. Before the official announcement about moving to Louisiana, the company has been focusing on buying various cardrooms and other small gaming venues that are all located in the western part of the US, mainly Colorado and Washington.
In fact, Colorado has been on the radar of Maverick Gaming for quite a while now. The company revealed its transactions a couple of months ago, displaying that they have purchased a total of three small casinos in Colorado.
Moreover, they also bought 25 card rooms in Washington. Right now, the company will obtain more than 1,500 slots, 50 table games, and 400 hotel rooms by buying the big resort in Shreveport.
According to some analysts, Louisiana was probably one of the first states where transactions would take place after the announced Eldorado-Caesars merger. Namely, the Pelican State has 15 riverboat casinos, as well as a couple of land-based ones.
If we take into account the Caesar’s owned Harrah’s New Orleans and the Eldorado Shreveport casino, there are a total of six casinos owned by the two companies in the area. Therefore, it was only natural that the operators would consider Louisiana to be one of the main states where they would put properties on sale.
Eldorado has been particularly active when it comes to selling resorts to other operators. Before announcing that they are selling the Shreveport property, the company announced selling two additional venues in Missouri and one in West Virginia.
Century Casinos and Vici Properties are most likely to buy those for a total of $385 million.
When the two companies finally combine into one, many analysts believe that Eldorado will sell additional properties in Las Vegas that are currently owned by Caesars. This would be done to further alleviate the debt that Caesars is currently struggling with.
One thing is certain — the merger is closer than ever, and we could soon get the biggest casino operator in the history of the US.
