Las Vegas-based casino giant Boyd Gaming announced yesterday it would be spinning off its iGaming division into Boyd Interactive Gaming. The division will include its Stardust online casinos, its Las Vegas FanDuel–branded sportsbooks and the assets recently acquired in its $170 million purchase of Pala Interactive.
Boyd Gaming owns the PA casino, Valley Forge Casino Resort, a top-three iGaming licensee in Pennsylvania. FanDuel Casino and Stardust Casino operate under its license. In addition, Boyd fully owns Stardust and will look to grow the brand moving forward.
The company will also continue to cash in on its 5% equity stake in FanDuel. That company operates the largest sportsbook in the nation and has online casinos in four states.
Stardust Casino PA moving onto the Boyd Interactive Gaming platform
Keith Smith, President and CEO of Boyd Gaming, said during the company’s Q4 earnings call:
“While online casinos are now limited to just a few states, we believe in the long-term potential from iGaming. Owning and operating our own iGaming operation will allow us to leverage our nationwide portfolio and extensive customer database to create a profitable online casino business.”
“We will start by transitioning our current Stardust Online Casinos in New Jersey and Pennsylvania to our platform over the next several months.”
Smith expects the transition to take place by mid-year. He said he expects no economic impact in 2023, despite moving off of FanDuel’s platform. Owning 100% of the product will offset any short-term drop in numbers, he said. And the business should grow in the long term as Boyd grows its own player databases.
Boyd’s focus will remain on iGaming, leaving its sports betting profits to come via its piece of FanDuel.
Can Boyd build off a record-setting 2022?
The Q4 earnings call revealed that Boyd Gaming set records for the year and quarter, with $3.6 billion in annual revenue and $923 million coming in Q4. Yearly revenue was up 5.6% from $3.37 billion in 2021. Fourth quarter revenue was up 4.9% from $879.8 million in 2021.
Along with iGaming, its Vegas properties and management fees from California’s Sky River Casino, which opened last year, propelled those increases.
Valley Forge is the largest sportsbook licensee in Pennsylvania, a top market in the country. It is also the third-largest iGaming licensee in the state, reporting $279 million in online casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) in 2022.
Most of that is undoubtedly from FanDuel, though the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board does not report individual operator statistics.
Nonetheless, total online casino GGR was $1.67 billion for the year. Boyd’s PA and nationwide presence bodes well for the company’s future profits.
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