Entain agrees loan allocation for new acquisitions

The British gaming giant has completed pricing and allocation to provide $1bn to buy SuperSport and BetCity.nl

UK.- Entain Plc has completed the pricing and allocation of a new term loan to provide it with $1bn in funds for use in further acquisitions. The First Lien Term Loan B set to mature in October 2029 was finally increased from $750m to $1bn after strong demand from global credit investors

Proceeds will be used to fund Entain’s acquisition of the Croatian bookmaker SuperSport, an acquisition that the FTSE100 gaming group will use to launch its Entain CEE joint venture with EMMA Capital. It will also fund the group’s acquisition of Dutch online gambling operator BetCity, which will allow it to reenter the Netherlands. Entain will no longer need to draw on existing revolving credit facilities for the acquisition.

The remaining proceeds will be used to “maximise Entain’s liquidity and provide further balance sheet flexibility”.

Entain said: “The Group intends to enter into hedging arrangements (including cross-currency swaps to effectively convert the entire borrowing into EUR, and fixed/floating interest rate swaps) which should result in an overall fixed cash cost of financing for the New Loan of approximately 6.2% until September 2024.”

Entain expects strong last quarter as revenue rises 2% in Q3

Entain has reported a 2 per cent rise in revenue for the third quarter. With the World Cup still to come, it now forecasts revenue for the year of $1.3bn.

The operator said it had seen a record number of new customers in Q3, with registrations up by 6 per cent. Online revenue was up 1 per cent and retail was up 10 per cent, surpassing pre-pandemic numbers by 8 per cent. Bet MGM revenue was up 90 per cent.