William Hill US said Wednesday it is acquiring the sportsbook assets managed by rival CG Technology in Nevada and The Bahamas, ending the operations of a company that has paid $9 million in fines after being disciplined three times by Nevada gaming regulators since 2014.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval in Nevada and The Bahamas.
Following the CG acquisition, William Hill will assume the management contracts for sportsbooks at Tropicana Las Vegas, Venetian Las Vegas, Palazzo, Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Palms Casino Resort, and Silverton. Earlier this year, William Hill took over the sportsbook at M Resort in Henderson when CG’s contract expired.
William Hill will also provide a betting platform and risk management consulting to the Atlantis on Paradise Island in The Bahamas.
Joe Asher (l) and former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman at the opening of William Hill’s remodeled sportsbook at the Plaza Las Vegas
CG operates the sportsbook at the Hard Rock Las Vegas, but the off-Strip property will close in February for a nine-month remodeling project that will convert the facility into Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. The casino will be managed by Connecticut-based Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment.
“We are pleased to have reached this agreement. This will allow us to expand our Las Vegas footprint to several marquee resorts,” Joe Asher, CEO of William Hill US, said in a statement.
Asher was managing director of CG, then known as Cantor Gaming, when the company came to Nevada in the mid-2000s. Cantor Gaming was the sports betting affiliate branch of financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald.
“We look forward to working with our new casino partners and transitioning CG Technology’s retail and mobile customers to our award-winning offering,” Asher said.
CG Technology CEO Parikshat Khanna, said the company was “happy to reach an agreement for the sale of the race and sports book assets of CG Technology to William Hill and looks forward to a seamless transition for our loyal casino partners and customers.”
William Hill currently operates 113 race and sports books in Nevada and manages sports betting operations for casinos and racetracks in 10 of the 13 states where sports betting is currently legal. The company signed an agreement last month with Monumental Sports & Entertainment to build and operate a sports book at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C.
William Hill will continue its Nevada – and nationwide – growth through the $17.3 billion merger between Eldorado Resorts and Caesars Entertainment.
The company and Eldorado signed a strategic partnership last year that gave the sportsbook operator the exclusive right to operate sports betting at all properties owned or managed by Eldorado in the United States, which includes the right to oversee sports betting at the Caesars casinos being acquired in the deal.
Asher and Cantor
Asher left Cantor Gaming in 2007 to form his own sports book management firm, Brandywine Bookmaking, which quickly grew into a network of 16 race and sports books throughout Las Vegas under the Lucky’s Race and Sports brand name.
Cantor filed suit in Clark County District Court against Asher in 2011 amid his deal to sell Brandywine to UK bookmaker William Hill for $15.7 million. Asher subsequently remained as CEO of the U.S. operation.
In 2017, a Nevada jury found that Asher didn’t breach the terms of his non-compete agreement with Cantor.
CG’s Nevada regulatory issues
CG’s troubles began as Cantor Gaming in 2012, when M Resort’s sportsbook was a focal point in federal law enforcement investigation. Cantor Gaming Vice President and Director of Risk Management Mike Colbert was arrested for accepting illegal wagers and acting as an agent in a nationwide illegal betting operation.
Colbert, who ran M Resort’s sportsbook, was charged with laying off wagers for an illegal offshore betting operation. Some of the wagers were placed at M Resort.
CG also agreed to pay $22.5 million in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2016 to avoid criminal prosecution on illegal gambling and money laundering charges.
Penn National Gaming, which owns M Resort, did not own the property at the time of incident. The former operators of M Resort were not implicated in the conspiracy.
Nevada gaming regulators fined the company $5.5 million in 2014 over the federal allegations. Cantor subsequently changed its name to CG Technology. The fine was the largest penalty ever handed down by Nevada gaming regulators until this February, when the Nevada Gaming Commission fined Wynn Resorts $20 million to settle a 10-count complaint over the numerous allegations of sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexual misconduct by former CEO Steve Wynn.
#exclusive – William Hill US to acquire rival CG Technology’s sportsbook operations in Nevada and The Bahamas. –@howardstutz, CDC Gaming Reports. https://t.co/fyGIkwBQoD @WilliamHillUS @CGTechnology_ #CDCgaming
— CDC Gaming Reports (@CDCNewswire) November 21, 2019
In 2016, CG paid a $1.5 million fine to Nevada gaming regulators to settle a complaint over charges that the sports book operator underpaid or overpaid certain bettors by hundreds of thousands of dollars. As part of the settlement, company CEO Lee Amaitis was forced to resign.
Last year, CG paid a $1.75 million fine and a separate $250,000 payment to the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling to cover charges over accepting wagers from outside the state, accepting bets on games and events that had already concluded, miscalculating payouts on single game and round robin parlay wagers, and incorrectly setting up a satellite sports betting station at an undisclosed casino’s Super Bowl party.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
