Twin River Joins Missouri Casino Market with Eldorado Deal
Eldorado Resorts announced on July 11 that it had an agreement with Twin River Worldwide Holdings to sell the Isle of Capri Casino in Missouri and Lady Luck Casino in Mississippi to Twin River.
The deal will be worth $230 million in cash. Eldorado likely will use a fair amount of the money raised from the sales to help fund the acquisition of Caesars Entertainment, which was announced on June 24.
Twin River Enters The Missouri Market
The deal for Twin River means that the company enters the Missouri market for the first time. The Isle of Capri Casino Kansas City will be the first Twin River property in Missouri, in the prime Kansas City market. In the Twin River press release, Twin River President and CEO George Papanier said:
"Isle Kansas City and Lady Luck Vicksburg expand our geographic footprint with assets in attractive markets. We believe these assets are a great fit for our portfolio and see the opportunity to increase the net cash flow from these properties by our redevelopment and operating plans.
"In particular in Kansas City, where the property lies within an area near downtown that has been targeted by local officials for development, we feel there is opportunity for capital investment in the property which we believe will have a transformative impact and integrate well with local development efforts in the area."
The Isle of Capri Casino is the smallest of the Kansas City casinos, seeing a little over half the number of patrons from the next smallest Kansas City casino, Argosy. However, Isle of Capri still sees millions in action each year, making it a valuable piece to Twin River as the company grows.
Included in the press release is some concept art for the redevelopment of Isle of Capri, showing ideas for how to possibly proceed with future development of the property once it's acquired from Eldorado.
Twin River already is active in the Mississippi market, owning the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi. The Lady Luck Casino in Vicksburg is another addition to its brand in the well-known gambling market of Mississippi.
Lady Luck Casino is one of the few casinos in Mississippi not offering sports betting yet. However, Twin River is already in the sports betting game in Rhode Island, the first - and only - sports betting operator in the state. It’s likely they’ll be looking to add Lady Luck to the Mississippi sports betting scene.
Eldorado Gets Some Much-Needed Cash
As for Eldorado, it gets an additional $230 million to add to a monster acquisition of Caesars Entertainment. The $230 million won’t make much of a dent in the $7.2 billion in cash needed to fulfill the acquisition, but every penny is going to be needed.
Eldorado, once completing the acquisition of Caesars, will be running the largest gaming company in the U.S. It will have locations in pretty much every major American market available, featuring roughly 60 casinos and resorts across the country.
