Caesars recently announced that it is selling Tropicana Evansville to Twin River Holdings, which marks the company’s entrance into Indiana.
It’s the latest move in a string of acquisitions for Twin River.
Details of Caesars’ Tropicana Evansville sale
For Caesars, this is a necessary move for compliance. The Indiana Gaming Commission ruled that Caesars had to divest itself from multiple properties by Dec. 31.
This sale needed to happen in order to comply with antitrust regulations in Caesars’ “merger” with Eldorado Resorts.
Twin River is technically going to lease the property from real estate firm Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc., for $28 million per year.
GLPI will pay Caesars $340 million for the casino and the tract of land it occupies.
Twin River will give Caesars another $140 million for all the assets inside the casino.
This isn’t the first such deal between Caesars and Twin River. Earlier this year, the two companies made similar pacts regarding:
- Bally’s in Atlantic City, New Jersey
- Eldorado Shreveport in Louisiana
- Jumer’s in Rock Island, Illinois
- MontBlue Resort in Lake Tahoe, Nevada
When all these sales become final, Twin River will operate at least one property in 10 states.
Twin River’s gamble on depreciated casino properties
Twin River’s Executive Vice President, Marc Crisafulli, has been upfront with shareholders about the company’s designs. The corporation wants to spend its capital acquiring properties that it considers undervalued, then refurbish them.
For example, Bally’s Atlantic City finished dead last among the nine Atlantic City casinos in both casino win and total gaming revenue last year.
While Tropicana Evansville’s numbers aren’t that poor among its competition in the state, Twin River still obviously believes it fits that bill.
Crisafulli also stated that the company is particularly interested in sports betting, which is a booming market in Indiana.
Last month, Hoosiers wagered $207 million on sports, with the number expected to go up.
Currently, William Hill runs the sportsbook inside Tropicana Evansville, and just launched its mobile app today.
Whether William Hill remains the casino’s sports betting partner remains to be seen.
Twin River is hoping to push Tropicana Evansville to the upper echelon of Indiana casinos and boost its retail betting revenue.
