On Monday (May 2), MGM Resorts International offered to buy Swedish online casino company LeoVegas for roughly $607 million, which could potentially pave the way for the American casino operator to expand its presence in Europe. MGM floated a recommended public tender offer for 61 SEK (approximately 6.20 USD) in cash per share, which represents a 44.2% premium to LeoVegas’ most recent closing price of 42.32 SEK.
MGM has been looking to further capitalise on the sports/betting market through its joint venture BetMGM, which predicted earlier in 2022 more than 1.3 billion USD in revenue for the year, as the Covid pandemic fuelled demand for online gambling:
“We have achieved remarkable success with BetMGM in the U.S., and with the acquisition of LeoVegas in Europe we will expand our online gaming presence globally,” said MGM Resort CEO Bill Hornbuckle in a public statement. LeoVegas casino, which is licensed in eight jurisdictions, primarily in the Scandinavian countries and the rest of Europe, went out and said it recommended its shareholders to accept the offer from MGM. The acceptance period on the offer will start during June and expire on or around August 2022.
