Station Casinos acquires majority stake in Fertitta Interactive
Casino group becomes majority shareholder with 50.1% share, Fertitta's co-founders share remaining stake.
Station Casinos has acquired a 50.1% stake in online gaming operator Fertitta Interactive, the company has announced in its financial results for the period ended 31 September 2012.
Once the deal is completed Station Casinos will own a majority stake in Fertitta Interactive, with the company’s co-founders Tom Breitling and Tim Poster retaining 12.5% each. Brothers Frank Fertitta III and his brother Lorenzo, the other two founders of Fertitta Interactive, will own the remaining 25%.
Fertitta Interactive was founded in 2010 and soon moved to acquire California-based game developer CyberArts in 2011. It has since received an online poker licence in Nevada and announced the launch of its own proprietary B2C brand, Ultimate Gaming.
A freeplay version of its first game, Ultimate Poker, has already been launched on Facebook with a real-money version set to be launched once the operator’s gaming technology has been approved by Nevada’s independent testing labs.
Station Casinos, founded by the Fertitta family, consists of 18 different properties in Las Vegas. Frank Fertitta III is chairman and CEO.
Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta also co-own Zuffa, which in turn owns the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a brand which Ultimate Gaming is already leveraging heavily in its marketing and player recruitment.
Marc Falcone, executive vice president and CFO of Station Casinos, said: “This technology represents one of the few established online poker platforms in the world that has never taken wagers from a jurisdiction in which such wagers were illegal. It is critically important to us that we own the technology, which allows us to control the perpetual innovation cycle. We are one of the only US gaming companies to develop and own its technology. We are excited about the possibilities that Ultimate Gaming presents and believe this creates a long-term value driver for Station Casinos.”
The news came as the casino group announced its third consecutive profitable quarter, with net Q3 revenues up 4.7% from the same period last year to $295.7m. Consolidated adjusted EBITDAM for the third quarter was $71.7m, an increase of 3.2% compared to the prior year third quarter.
Falcone said: “Despite a challenging operating environment, we experienced continued improvements in our operating results during the third quarter, and for the third consecutive quarter we experienced gains in both revenues and operating income in all of our major departments.”