Sports betting claims first casualty; “Scam” at Caesars?

Online sports betting has evidently proven too rich for Wynn Resorts‘ blood. The New York Post reports that Wynn “is looking to unload its online sports-betting business at a steep discount as the fledgling niche faces painful losses from stiff taxes and costly promotions needed to lure customers.” Wynn Interactive, valued at $3.2 billion, is being peddled for $500 million. This will come as bad news to Shaquille O’Neal, who unloaded his share of the Sacramento Kings in return for becoming a “brand ambassador” for Wynn, which also built a ritzy Las Vegas broadcasting studio to showcase its product. There were rumblings from the top that Wynn and OSB were an uncomfortable fit. CEO Matt Maddox had told investors, “The market is really not sustainable right now. Competitors are spending too much to get customers. And the economics are just not something that we’re going to participate in.”

“Shortly thereafter, Morgan Stanley analysts said they valued WynnBet at $700 million, adding that they only expected the app to win a 2.5% share of the North American market,” writes Josh Kosman. Wynn has picked a devil of a time to put Wynn Interactive on the block, given the recent selloff in OSB stocks, with DraftKings languishing below $19.50/share. But Wynn is showing more sense perhaps than the market leaders, who continue to throw good money after bad with insane levels of free play in an effort to capture customers. (But what’s to keep those same customers from shopping around for a better deal when the “free money” dries up?)

Penn National Gaming might be willing to pony up for Wynn’s OSB operation, having already taken on Barstool Sports and theScore. Plus, it would provide a back-door means for Penn to get into New York State. So too, Fanatics might be a contender. But even their interest is deemed tepid at this point. In the meantime, BetMGM says it will see profitability by sometime next year. At the rate that it’s spending on marketing that would be quite an impressive feat.

Did Caesars Entertainment milk/bilk customers of their money last weekend, even after knowing that Weekends with Adele was toast? That’s one of the more inflammatory theories being floated on the ‘Net. “Our sources tell us that Caesars Entertainment knew weeks ago that these shows were never going to happen,” [emphasis added] asserts NetworkInVegas.com, adding that “Adele seemed to be in the middle of some manic episode, and there were huge doubts that she was ever going to go on stage during the middle of the so-called pandemic.” (When is Adele not “in the middle of some manic episode”?) Of course, if NIV’s scrivener thinks the Covid-19 pandemic is “so-called” he may not have both his oars in the water either.

Besides, our experience of Caesars leadership [sic] is such that it is giving them too much credit to assert that they were so supposedly Machiavellian. Having green-lit a gargantuan production show on an absurd, seven-week runup they look to have been caught like a deer in the headlights when the reality of the situation sank in. Currently, they’re hiding beneath the Cone of Silence, issuing a naive statement that “Creating a show of this magnitude is incredibly complex” (In seven weeks? Ya think?) and threatening to fire any employee who breathed a word to the press about l’affaire Adele. Of course, talking to the media would mean having to answer awkward questions about how “half” of Adele’s “team” supposedly were laid low with Covid-19 for a show at which customers would basically have to prove they were Covid-free to gain entrance (complete with on-the-spot testing at Rao’s).

Like it or not, Weekends with Adele has sprung more leaks than a colander, with confidential sources telling the British press that A) Adele and her set designer were at daggers drawn, B) the show was thrown into chaos by frequent changes in the song order and C) Adele’s mental health is such that the show may never happen, which would make it the Heaven’s Gate of Las Vegas Strip shows, with ticket-buyers left holding the bag. “It seemed that while she has always preferred a stripped-back performance, she was under some pressure to come up with a huge extravaganza,” said one source. Be that the case, credit to Adele for wanting a program that was “low-key … all about the voice” and serious to her demerits for caving to the demands of those who wanted The Biggest Show On Earth. Call Caesars feckless, clueless or hapless for allowing and enabling this train wreck to occur but attributing malign motives is going too far, surely. And as for those who think Weekends with Adele will debut in April as an unprecedented, all-is-forgiven triumph, remember all that squandered good will—and read the acrimony on social media for good measure.

(What are the odds on an Adele tribute show playing the Strip before Ms. Atkins actually does?)

Meanwhile, from the other side of the country come some observations about Atlantic City from our East Coast bureau. Borgata was described as doing “decent” business on Sunday, with only a two-minute wait for the players lounge. (Everybody was probably home watching football.) The previous Wednesday, Hard Rock Atlantic City had “moderate attendance” at its slots in the evening but wasn’t doing so well at the tables. Photos taken that night look like scenes from The Omega Man. Over at Showboat, owner Bart Blatstein is deep into financing his dreamt-of water park. In addition to issuing $97 million in bonds he’s taken out a $22 million mortgage on one of his hotel towers. The latter has been converted to 264 apartments, for which there is a 44-person waiting list. He’s scarfed up a volleyball court for $4 million, the Garden Pier for $1.5 million and 12 vacant Oriental Avenue lots for $660,000. It’s nice to see someone with so much faith in the Boardwalk.

Massachusetts gamblers must have done their Christmas shopping done early, as casino win accelerated from November into December. The latter was up 15% from 2019, hitting $96 million. Encore Boston Harbor scored the bulk of that, $62.5 million, up 15.5%. Plainridge Park hopped 8% to $11 million and MGM Springfield leapt 17% to $22 million. Merry Christmas, fellas.

Jottings: Global Gaming Business, an industry-insider publication, took a poll on what casinos should do about Omicron. 40% of respondents opted for “Drop all restrictions.” That’s right: four out of every 10 casino executives don’t give a tinker’s damn if you get sick or worse. Big Gaming would like to Russian roulette with your lives … Minnesota state Rep. Zack Stephenson is drafting a sports-betting bill in the Lege. He’s got to get 11 tribes on board, easier said than done, but we wish him luck … Casino legalization in Brazil is expected to pass the country’s legislature and survive a Jair Bolsonaro veto. The latter says he’s resigned to the outcome …

The collective-bargaining order imposed on Red Rock Resort is being challenged by employee Raynell Teske, with help from the far-right National Right to Work foundation, which goofily blames the ruling on Barack Obama. Teske wants a hearing before the entire Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the centerpiece of her complaint being that unionization was voted down at Red Rock in a secret-ballot election … A rump faction of members of Parliament are up in arms that the United Kingdom gaming regulators want to reduce addiction. What sauce! Turns out the PMs —who accuse regulators of having “caused mental harm” to the industry, poor dears—are in the pocket of major betting firms.