Allied Entertainment Accepts Bally’s “Superior” Offer for the WPT

March 17th, 2021 | by Jason Reynolds

Bally’s Corporation, owner of 12 casinos and racetracks in the US, is set to buy the World Poker Tour (WPT) for $90 million.

Bally’s Corporation will buy the WPT for $90 million after usurping a previous bid by Element Partners. (Image: WPT)

The cash offer was accepted by the WPT’s parent company, Allied Entertainment, and announced this week.

In choosing to sell the poker company to Bally’s, Allied Entertainment has nixed an inferior deal previously agreed with Element Partners.

Bally’s Bid Usurps Element’s Offer

A statement from Allied confirmed that its board members had considered both offers and opted to take Bally’s.

“The company’s board of directors, in consultation with its financial and legal advisors, has determined that a revised proposal from Bally’s Corporation constitutes a superior proposal under the company’s pending stock purchase agreement with Element Partners,” reads the March 16 press statement.

Bally’s initially offered $100 million for Allied Entertainment’s two assets: the WPT and Allied Esports. However, upon further discussion, the bid has been reduced to a $90 million cash offer.

For that money, Bally’s will take full control of the WPT and its assets, while Allied will keep its eSports company.

Bally’s last-minute coup came as a surprise to many within the poker industry. WPT CEO Adam Pliska said in January that he was looking forward to starting a “new phase” with Element Partners.

The subsequent radio silence didn’t raise any red flags. Multi-million-dollar deals of this nature can often take months to complete due to endless reams of red tape.

Interesting Opportunities for WPT

However, we learned on March 5 that the silence was due to an unexpected and unsolicited offer from Bally’s.

Given the size of the bid and Bally’s status within the gaming industry, the last-minute coup wasn’t dismissed out of hand.

Allied’s board of directors continued to recommend the deal with Element but took time to consider the new offer.

That was clearly time well spent as the board decided to go with the more lucrative bid from Bally’s.

It’s no surprise that Allied took the more lucrative offer, but there may be more to it than that. Element is a growth equity fund. Bally’s is a betting and gaming company with 12 venues in seven US states.

Based on that fact alone, Bally’s has more to offer in the immediate future. As well as new stops for the WPT’s live tour, there may be scope to launch online products through the new partnership.

Although there hasn’t been any talk of such ventures, the foundations are there. Given that the WPT’s Adam Pliska has pushed to expand the tour in recent years, innovations in this area are more than possible.

As with all high-profile takeovers, nothing is done until it’s done. However, Allied has stated its intention. The only thing left to do now is wait for the contracts to be signed.