After lots of rumors and discussed possibilities, Caesars Entertainment has sold its UK division to Metropolitan Gaming Holdco Limited, a new gaming entity created on July 12th in London, UK, with Jesse Dorigo and Steven Weiser as directors. Weiser is current Chief Compliance Officer and Head of Litigation at Silver Point Capital, and Dorigo also works on that firm.
Based on information published by Casino International, Metropolitan Gaming Limited has been formed by the combination of Silver Point Capital and Lancer Capital Management. These are two U.S. based private equity companies.
Silver Point Capital is a Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund founded by ex-Goldman Sachs debt traders Robert O’Shea and Edward Mulé in 2002. It focuses on credit and special situations investments, and has been a creditor of Caesars Entertainment Corp. For its part, founded in 2020, Lancer Capital Management is based in Wayne, Pennsylvania. The firm seeks to invest in different niche business services. This group belongs to mogul Avi Glazer, the owner of football club Manchester United FC and US NFL franchise Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now, in a quick and surprising move, both groups seem to have decided to advance acquiring Caesars’ UK operation.
On April 2021, Caesars Entertainment bought William Hill in a US$3.7 billion takeover. In May, the company announced it was going to sell non-American assets. The amount of the acquisition by Metropolitan Gaming Limited is unknown, as well as if the purchase also involves the rest of Caesars’ EMEA interests.