Getting the green light

The Nevada Gaming Control Board approved William Hill Plc’s acquisition of CG Technology’s Nevada sportsbooks on August 12 after a unanimous vote. The deal now requires the Nevada Gaming Commission’s go-ahead at its next meeting on August 27. 

sportsbooks located at six properties in Southern Nevada

William Hill is already the biggest sports betting operator in the state with 113 race and sportsbooks. It now looks set to take control of the CG Technology sportsbooks located at six properties in Southern Nevada. 

The sports betting outlets are at The Palazzo, The Venetian, Silverton, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Tropicana, and The Palms. William Hill will also take over the risk management consulting and betting offering at the Atlantis Casino in the Bahamas as part of the deal.

Preliminary plans on the table

If the takeover gets approved by Nevada’s gambling regulators, William Hill will honor all bets that are outstanding and written by CG Technology. CG mobile app users will also be migrated over to the William Hill app. 

William Hill will honor all bets that are outstanding

Talking about potential plans for the sportsbooks that the company is set to acquire, William Hill US CEO Joe Asher said: “We’ve had very preliminary discussions with a couple of the properties about retrofitting the locations and spending capital to upgrade them.”

The acquisition was first announced in November 2019; the financial terms were not disclosed at the time. Regulatory approval in Nevada and the Bahamas was deemed necessary for the deal to go through.

Company presence in Nevada

CG Technology, previously called Cantor Gaming, has been in the Nevada market since 2009. One of the pioneers for live betting in the state, it also launched the first mobile gaming app in Nevada. The company controlled about 30% of the state’s sports betting market in 2014 before it ran into trouble with regulators. 

CG Technology was also the operator of the Hard Rock sportsbook. The property is currently closed and will be rebranded Virgin Hotel Las Vegas when it reopens.

William Hill was the first European sports betting operator to get a full gaming license in Nevada. It saw the formation of William Hill US in 2012, quickly acquiring three sports betting companies in the state for approximately $49m.?In 2020, it reported a gross revenue market share of about 32% in Nevada.

William Hill has sports betting operations in many other states, including New Jersey, Indiana, West Virginia, Iowa, Illinois, Mississippi, and New Mexico. It also opened the country’s first-ever sportsbook within a sporting complex at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC on August 3.