Las Vegas Sands Online Gaming
The Las Vegas Strip exists today largely in the mold that Las Vegas Sands fashioned for it, and certainly, there’s been plenty to say over the last week about the company’s $6.25 billion decision to leave. There’s been no shortage of questions. The most compelling: Why did the company sell?
Feb 04, 2021 By this point, most major US casino companies have made their entries to the new online gambling space. And yet the largest of all, Las Vegas Sands, has been sitting out. The reason is no secret: Its late owner and founder, Sheldon Adelson, was an adamant opponent of the idea. Adelson passed away last month, leaving the company in the hands of. Jul 13, 2021 July 13, 2021, 8:55 am. Casino powerhouse Las Vegas Sands is set to finally venture into online gambling after its former CEO and Chairman, late businessman Sheldon Adelson, for many years kept up strong opposition to digital casinos. The company announced Monday that it plans to become a strategic investor in digital gaming technologies. Las Vegas Sands Considers Entering the Online Sports Betting Industry. A move for entering the online gaming industry was long been rejected by Las Vegas Sands’ late chairman Sheldon Adelson. His deputy Rod Goldstein is taking the lead on this potential new expansion. According to Bloomberg, Goldstein is currently in discussion, that could.
The deal didn’t come from out of the blue. Bloomberg News had an inside track on it back in the fall, even down to the sale price and the likelihood of a split owner/operator transaction involving a real estate investment trust (REIT)𑁋two of which, VICI Properties and MGM Growth Properties, already own most of the Strip’s resort casinos.
As it turned out, it was VICI, a REIT spun off from the Caesars bankruptcy. It owns more than a dozen Caesars resorts and nearly 30 others around the U.S. in lease agreement with five separate operators.
VICI is paying $4 billion in cash for the Venetian, its sister resort, the Palazzo, and the Sands Expo and Convention Center, in partnership with Apollo Global Management. Apollo is the private equity giant whose 2008 leveraged buyout of Harrah’s Entertainment in partnership with TPG Capital also figured prominently in the Caesars bankruptcy.
On top of the $4 billion, Apollo is paying $2.25 billion for the companies that operate the three properties, with a little help from LVS, which is kicking in $1.2 billion of the purchase price in the form of a term loan. LVS also is guaranteeing the $250 million in annual rent Apollo will pay VICI for the operating rights through 2023, subject to certain EBITDAR benchmarks.
Far and away it’s a great deal for VICI, which is adding two more marquee Strip resorts to an already glittering portfolio, encompassing more than 7,000 top-end rooms and suites, 225,000 square feet of gaming space, some of the best dining and shopping in Las Vegas and 2.3 million square feet of prime meetings and exhibitions space, not to mention the MGS Sphere, an 18,000-seat entertainment showplace slated to open in 2023 at a cost of $1.7 billion.
Apollo, for its part, is back on the Strip for relatively small money, considering the quality of the LVS assets, the capstone of an aggressive acquisitions strategy that currently includes Toronto-listed Great Canadian Gaming, Italian sports betting group Gamenet, a stake in IGT’s Lottomatica and a pending investment in Sazka, Europe’s largest lottery operator.
Of course, Apollo is not an operator. But as Alex van Hoek, an Apollo partner, astutely observed, “The Venetian has one of the best teams in the industry, focused on delivering world-class customer service and experiences.”
Then again, they’re buying into a destination that’s been devastated by the pandemic like no other in the country. But here, too, van Hoek was duly optimistic. The deal “underscores our conviction in a strong recovery for Las Vegas as vaccines usher in a reopening of leisure and travel in the United States and across the world,” he said.
A conviction, or so it appears, that LVS and its late founder, Sheldon Adelson, may not have entirely shared, at least not as operators who generated 87 percent of their $13.74 billion in 2019 revenues from Macau and Singapore, and which even in pandemic-battered 2020 were good for 79.5 percent.
“Anyone who thinks Sheldon Adelson wasn’t a brilliant businessman didn’t know him,” said Brendan Bussmann, director of government affairs for industry consultants Global Market Advisors. “He was one of the most brilliant people I ever met. Maybe he saw something.”
What we know is that the reinvention of Las Vegas as a fabulously successful convention destination where far more money gets made outside its casinos than in them𑁋that was the product of a singular vision, embodied in the Venetian, the convention-focused resort that came along on the cusp of the new century to rewrite the book on what you could charge for hotel rooms in the desert.
In Bussmann’s words, “It changed the landscape of Las Vegas.”
But in 2020, as the pandemic raged and business travel ground to a halt, and Adelson slowly succumbed to the cancer that claimed him earlier this year at the age of 87, the vision was in tatters.
Was it the second quarter’s $985 million operating loss? The third-quarter loss of $610 million announced just days before the Bloomberg story broke?
Clearly something had changed. It may have come from the board of directors, perhaps from longtime President and COO Rob Goldstein, Adelson’s hand-picked No. 2 and ultimately his successor as chairman and CEO.
More likely, it was Adelson.
“There is a belief that Sheldon was behind this,” a Wall Street analyst close to the deal told GGB News.
He had to be thinking at that point about the impending transfer of his controlling 57 percent of the stock to his wife, 75-year-old Miriam Adelson, a physician and noted philanthropist with priorities that no doubt have little in common with the business of running gambling halls.
“It was one of those where an opportunity to get a check like that doesn’t come around too often,” said Bussmann. “And when most of your money is coming from Asia anyway, it makes sense.”
The company will now be known simply as “Sands.”
Las Vegas Sands Online Gaming Casino
“Clearly, it’s a positive,” said the analyst quoted above. “You’re seeing cap rates on a par with where they were pre-pandemic, looking back at the sale of the Bellagio and MGM and deals like that. But lower interest rates clearly affected this. And it was seller financing, REIT financing. And you have to wonder about the reluctance of the banks right now to finance these deals. There are some folks who are just hesitant. It’s unclear, was this unique in nature? I mean, how many players out there want to pay these multiples? And it’s unclear in what it says about the timing of (a Strip) recovery and what the recovery will look like.”
Obviously, there’s a lot LVS can do with $6.25 billion, like pay down some of its $3.97 billion in debt, restart the payment of dividends, a cause near and dear to Adelson’s heart, recycle capital back into its higher ROI holdings in Macau and Singapore, where some $5.5 billion worth of redevelopment and expansion work is under way and where the company’s invaluable Macau concession is set to expire in 18 months.
And it was reported that Adelson and his yacht shared a marina with Crown Resorts majority owner James Packer on New Year’s Eve, although there is some question the two met at that time. Could Sands be a player in picking up the pieces when all the regulatory investigations of Crown’s corporate misdeeds are completed in Australia? After all Sands has a pipeline to Chinese gamblers that runs through Macau, and now has the financial wherewithal to perhaps pick up the Australian operator at fire-sale prices, including a brand new integrated resort in Sydney.
There are potentially greener pastures in the U.S. as well, New York City and Texas (the company has been lobbying heavily in both states) being at the top of the list.
“It’s hard to say. Clearly, they’re interested in Texas and New York,” the analyst who spoke with GGB News said. “But isn’t Las Vegas the key to any regional strategy? Their intentions in the online space are sketchy as well. And I don’t think the markets believe they needed to do this to fund expansion in Asia. There are just so many unknowns. More questions than answers.”
Perhaps all that’s certain, as Bussmann put it, is this:
“I know it’s a cliché, but it really is the end of an era.”
Date: Sep 15, 2021
Location:Las Vegas, Nevada, US
Company: Las Vegas Sands Corp.
The primary responsibility of the Sr Digital Broadcast Producer – Gaming is to shape the strategy, operation and output of the livestream studio component of the online casino games. This position is a foundational part of a rapidly growing team and plays a key leadership role in the end-to-end studio production process.
All duties are to be performed in accordance with departmental and Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s policies, practices, and procedures.
- Lead the creative strategy and partner with appropriate teams to craft the livestream experience including shooting approach, program format, script development, graphics, post- and livestream production
- Manage studio operation and production functions of our external partners for staffing, onboarding, strategy, execution
- Lead discussions on broadcast innovation, providing a strong POV informed by industry best practices and experience
- Attend regular stakeholder meetings to inform on studio progress/status/issues/solutions
- Effectively manage production budget, resources and timeline
- Ensure the studio operation and livestream content adhere to company guidelines
- Participate in recruitment and candidate assessment for studio personnel
- Safety is an essential of this job.
- Consistent and regular attendance is an essential function of this job.
- Performs other related duties as assigned.
All Las Vegas Sands Corp. Team Members are expected to conduct and carry themselves in a professional manner at all times. Team Members are required to observe the Company’s standards, work requirements and rules of conduct.
- 21 years of age.
- Proof of authorization to work in the United States.
- Undergraduate or Post-Graduate degree in Media Arts, Film, Television or Digital Production; or equivalent experience
- Must be able to obtain and maintain and any certification or license, as required by law or policy.
- 5-10 years of experience in television or video production, with deep knowledge of the digital livestream video production process, from pre-production through post-production and delivery
- Strong point of view and experience in producing engaging live video content
- Ability to manage multiple streaming studio setups
- Experience in script writing
- Experience in managing and handling on-air talent
- Strong deck development and presentation skills with the ability to communicate and manage expectations with project stakeholders
- Ability to contribute in the areas of process, education, operations and vetting of vendors and contractors
- Some experience across the content creation process: storyboards, scripts, writing, and directing ideal
- Some understanding of common video production tools such as Adobe Creative Suite, Blackmagic/DaVinci, Apple Final Cut / Motion, or Avid ideal
- Strong understanding and experience with live streaming platforms, camera and audio equipment ideal
- Some experience producing for a technology company ideal
- Some experience producing for a casino gaming company ideal
- Some Jira experience ideal
- Ability to communicate clearly and effectively in English, both in spoken and written form.
- Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate effectively with guests and other Team Members of different backgrounds and levels of experience.
- Must be able to work varied shifts, including nights, weekends and holidays.
Must be able to:
- Physically access all areas of the property and drive areas with or without a reasonable accommodation or work remotely.
- Maintain composure under pressure and consistently meet deadlines with internal and external customers and contacts.
- Ability to interact appropriately and effectively with guests, management, other team members, and outside contacts.
- Ability for prolonged periods of time to walk, stand, stretch, bend and kneel.
- Work in a fast-paced and busy environment.
- Work indoors and be exposed to various environmental factors such as, but not limited to, CRT, noise, dust, and cigarette smoke.