Gambling Ins.
A gavel, a gong, a bell; the three symbols of a fresh day of trading at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Although the tool itself has changed over the years, the act of the ‘opening bell’ has been solidified across public trading houses - even though Nasdaq doesn’t have a physical trading floor, the house still has an opening bell ceremony each day. That’s how strong it is.
However, more companies, with some high-profile examples within gaming, are pulling away from this iconic morning routine and instead favoring the quiet life of private equity.
But why are companies going private?
There are a few reasons why some big gambling companies are going private.
First of all, when a company goes public, there is a far greater level of administration and bureaucracy. A private company therefore has more control over its business, without having to please multiple shareholders.
Once a company goes private, the business is in the hands of a few select people; either the private equity firm or the family controlling the company. This makes it infinitely easier to make decisions and act on them.
There’s also less volatility from being on the publicly traded stock market, too. The stock market has quite infamous ups and downs, but unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past five years, you’ve probably noticed some global events that affected the economy quite severely.
If anything, this proves that there’s no set path to success for companies; going public is no longer a symbol of ‘making it’ but should instead be analysed as a viable strategy, rather than the only strategy
One of the biggest positives of being publicly traded, however, is access to capital. It used to be one of the only ways companies could get funding for projects, which is why going public was historically seen as the end goal for many businesses in the past.
But this isn’t the case anymore. Even as far back as 2018, IPOs brought in $50.3bn in the tech sector, while private equity firms invested $130.9bn.
Some companies never went public in the first place.
Once a company goes private, the business is in the hands of a few select people; either the private equity firm or the family controlling the company. This makes it infinitely easier to make decisions and act on them. The biggest example in gambling is bet365, which has been private since it launched in 2000, owned and operated by the Coates family. On the supplier side, Interblock is a huge firm one would assume is NYSE-listed but has remained private, in 2022 being acquired by (you guessed it, private equity) funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management.
So perhaps we’ll see a new era of company ownership going forward, where gaming companies won’t be afraid to rely on private equity, rather than face the public eye on the stock market. Is it time for more casino and sports betting companies to take a gamble on their products and boot out the shareholders and their opinions for good?
