Caesars Entertainment has agreed to sell the World Series of Poker brand and all of its intellectual property to the operator of GGPoker, the NSUS Group, for $500 million. The deal should be finalized before the end of this year and includes $250 million in cash and a $250 million promissory note payable five years after the deal closes.
Despite the sale, Caesars will retain the rights to host the annual World Series of Poker live tournament in Las Vegas for the next 20 years. Caesars Digital will also receive a license from NSUS to continue operating its WSOP Online real-money poker platforms in Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania for the foreseeable future.
However, Caesars will be restricted from running online poker in other jurisdictions for a specified period of time, subject to certain exceptions. Additionally, Caesars’s physical poker rooms will maintain WSOP branding and will have preferential rights to host WSOP Circuit events.
Acquired by Caesars from the Binion family in 2004, the World Series of Poker has grown from a single Las Vegas event into a global series of tournaments and an online platform. The most recent WSOP series at Horseshoe Las Vegas featured 99 events with a total prize pool exceeding $437 million.