The World Series of Poker Will Not Save Caesars

In March 2004, Caesars Entertainment Corp, then Harrah’s, bought the Horseshoe Club Operating Company for $37 million. That acquisition included the World Series of Poker brand, the growing and immensely popular annual poker party beloved by gamers and for good reason. That’s perhaps one of the saddest things about the ongoing Caesars bankruptcy mess. The company really does have some good assets, and one cannot blame them for the black hole they are currently in. Caught red handed by the central bank-induced business cycle they had no hand in creating, they initiated a leveraged buyout just at the exact time that money supply was collapsing and that is what caused Caesars to fall from grace. Now they have great assets surrounded by debt fuelled by years of profligacy aided and abetted by money printing that unfortunately stopped just as Caesars was making its major moves.

Can the WSOP save Caesars from what’s to come? Namely the stripping of their assets at some point in favor of creditors who are equally justified in demanding their money back? A look at the numbers and the assets in play in this bankruptcy case says no. How much is the WSOP worth today? Based on current market valuations and offers already made, here’s the math.

Harrah’s made a very good investment in buying the WSOP brand name. There is no dispute regarding that. But much like a portfolio where losses outweigh gains, a handful of good moves cannot make up for one big blunder. The WSOP is part of Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE), one of the segments that Caesars is fighting tooth and nail to hold on to in exchange for dumping the worthless Caesars Entertainment Operating Company on everyone else, the bankrupt shell with all the bad debt.

CIE revenues for 2015 were $766 million. Legendary investor Jim Rogers once said that 99% of professional investors do not read public filings, and 99.9% of them do not read the footnotes on public filings. If you read both, says Rogers, you are automatically in the know above 99.9% of professional investors who are supposed to make money picking winners. Since the WSOP is not its own segment, there is no direct number that can be quoted out of Caesars 10-K annual report to anchor the value of the WSOP. But there is a footnote that 99.9% of people, according to Rogers, did not read. Of the $766 million in CIE revenue for 2015, $616 million was foreign revenue. That means anything other than US dollars.