http://cdcgamingreports.com/caesars-...ly-bankruptcy/

This is just an opening shot, expect Caesars to file its own reorganization case. for its negotiated plan.

Senior debtholder approvals have been gathered, whether the proposed reorganization plan is deemed "fair" may be the issue.

However, this first shot by 2d tier creditors is due to their feeling screwed by the proposed plan .....

Game on.

(FWIW, none of this would impact players' funds or assets of WSOP.com. This is just arm-wrestling among various classes of secured debt holders of what is essentially the B&M side of the business and management.)

http://www.wsj.com/articles/caesars-...tcy-1421188045

Caesars Entertainment Corp. ’s largest unit is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection as soon as Thursday, the final gambit of a yearslong attempt to salvage a soured buyout.

Caesars Entertainment Operating Co.’s Chapter 11 filing would launch the final stage of Apollo Global Management LLC’s effort to save some of its $1.7 billion investment in the company, which it took private in 2008 with fellow buyout firm TPG.

A Chapter 11 petition would follow months of contentious negotiations with creditors, a who’s who of Wall Street investors. The unit’s collection of casinos and hotels, including much of the Las Vegas Strip’s iconic Caesars Palace, is expected to operate normally as it works to persuade a judge to approve a restructuring plan that would transform it into a real-estate investment trust.

Yeah, most of their problems stem from taking on more debt than they can handle as opposed to operational problems. Their top tier properties are actually quite profitable.

Caesars has been wildly unprofitable every year since 2009. The claim that their top-tier properties are profitable I don't think is true either...but even if it were, it's kind of like saying that player X is a winning poker player when he flops sets...kind of irrelevant if he's -EV overall.

Bad analogy.

It's more like giving Alex Rodriguez the MVP when he was on the Texas Rangers and the team was in last place (2003?). Sure his numbers were amazing (unhuman it turns out) but his team was a total dumpster fire that was 25 games out of first place.

We look at companies like CET, financially speaking, like we look at sports teams. The "profitable" limbs of CET are A-Rod on that team. They don't make CET a winner - the rest of CET makes those "profitable" limbs, losers.

TL-DR?

Pointing out "hey the company may be a dumpster fire, but hey, those 2 properties over there are in the black" is like saying "Sure the Rangers are 72-90, but A-Rod went .333 with 55 homers and a .950 OPS... so lets consider them a title contender."

$20+ billion in debt, over $2B in interest each year. It is no wonder a business can't cope with that kind of repayments. Board members or whomever are responsible for this kind negligence should really be facing some sort of criminal prosecution.

Well unless they are outright stealing money they are not criminally liable. I suppose they could be looking at Civil suits for being incompetent businessmen , but good luck with that. Bankruptcy laws protect these kind of folks (fat cats) pretty much.

A judge dealt Caesars Entertainment Corp. (CZR)’s bankruptcy reorganization a possible fatal blow in ruling that the company violated federal law when it shuffled assets and refinanced debt as part of an alleged scheme to protect itself from lower-ranking creditors.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-0...ral-judge.html

Has there been any talk about selling the WSOP specifically?

Who would NVG want to buy the WSOP if that were a possibility?

Someone who could create something around it that could compete with Amaya?

Amaya/Pokerstars makes the most sense. They were in talks to by bwin's social gaming so they are looking to acquire more assets.


They have no presence currently in the US besides co-sponsoring Hard Rock tournament in Florida and sponsoring US players.

Whole organization is a ****show. Does this surprise anyone?

Interestingly, the WSOP brand name + IP is at the center of the allegedly improper transfer of assets that Caesars (allegedly) used to try and leave their junior bondholders holding their wieners:
Cliff's: Caesars "sold" the WSOP intellectual property to one of its related companies with only $20.5M going in the other direction...the relevant question ofc is what the actual open-market value of that IP would have been, since the internal "sale" was legally obligated to be consummated at FMV...

Measuring brand value is an inexact science to be sure. Forbes' ranking of the top 100 brands, though, makes $20.5M for WSOP look pretty laughable, with even #100 Dell at $5.8 billion. Even NPR's brand value one source calculates at $400M.

they have profitable assets ... like the social gaming stuff ... and to my understanding, this is what caesars tried to secure. they created a new company and sold the good stuff to them, then they wanted to go bankrupt with CEO and live happily ever after

With the usual proviso that IANAL, (so all of this is mere speculation), if the judge's ruling that what Caesar's is attempting to do is, in fact, illegal ... if that ruling stands, then I would think CET will have to go through a normal bankruptcy process.

It appears that Caesar's made the classic business mistake of over expanding (via debt financing) right before a market collapse. (This tends to happen in the latter stages of a bubble.) I recall reading somewhere that Caesar's owns (or owned) 50+ properties world wide prior to 2009 and the onset of the Great Recession - with the bulk of those properties located in the United States. This made Caesar's the largest casino/gaming operator in the world. They've already sold off (or closed) several of their unprofitable - or marginally profitable - properties. The end result of this "reorganization process" is that Caesar's will emerge from bankruptcy a much smaller company. I wonder if they could get as much as $20 billion - the approximate amount of their debt burden - by selling off the rights to the WSOP? (It would be hilarious if Sheldon Adelson bought the WSOP.)

Caesar's "wish and a prayer" was that internet poker would be legalized at the federal level. That would have, virtually overnight, solved their debt problem. Too bad for them. Unlike Wall Street banks, Caesar's is not too big to fail.

Well given that they pegged its FMV as $20.5M (per article above), I'm going to say the answers is no. (yeah 20.5M is probably irrationally low, which the article points to as evidence of bad faith, but it's not 1,000x higher than that.)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-0...ers-votes.html