Angelo Dalli, William Scott, Michael Caselli, David Briggs and Steve Donoughue share their thoughts on who they think got the better deal out of the PokerStars Amaya Acquisition.
We asked these experienced figures in the iGaming industry on their thoughts on who they think got the better deal out of Amaya-PokerStars acquisition.
CEO and Co-Founder of Bit8 Angelo Dalli
“I think PokerStars, probably, but on the other hand, I think David Baazov got also a long-term future, which I think was a very good move strategically. So I think in a way, it is a win-win deal for both of them but short-term, it is PokerStars, definitely.”
Director of Warrenside Ltd. William Scott
“Scheinbergs got a full-valued deal and I congratulate him to have built a very successful business. The opportunities and challenges for David: Firstly the benefits gotta be New Jersey potentially licensing them and as well as US opening up. The challenges are going to be he has taken a lot of debts and also he is not going to be a private company anymore. PokerStars is not gonna be out as aggressive as it have been…because of the public market.”
Founder and Editor-in-Chief at iGaming Business Michael Caselli
“There should be a decrease in the PE (price-earnings ratio) value that applied to PokerStars because of the ability to go back to the United States but at the same time, it has been bought pretty much at a standard PE ratio for igaming companies that are trade publicly. But you think that this is not a standard company; this is like the market leader. There actually should be a premium.
So it seems like the question of getting back in the United States versus the premium that they should get for being the number one have kind of level each other out so I think the deal is actually fair on both sides.”
Chairman of GeoComply David Briggs
“David is in amazing position. A lot of people would love to trade places with him. He has achieved an amazing amount but what he could hope to achieve is more than the Scheinbergs have achieved. Scheinbergs said, “Look we can’t do any better than this. We are going to take $4.9 billion off the table.” And now David’s job is to make that worth 10, 15, 20 billion. I would say it’s even harder to go from a 5 billion valuation to 20 billion but David Baazov is an amazing guy so who knows.”
Gambling Consultant Steve Donoughue
“I think with all these things; we have to wait and find out: A whether what was reported was real and B whether it turns out the way it was supposed to. I don’t know but ask me again in six months.”
