Caesars Entertainment sells the World Series of Poker brand for $500M

Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR) announced on Thursday that it signed a deal to sell its intellectual property rights for the World Series of Pokerbrand to NSUS Group Inc. for $500 million.

The transaction includes $250 million in cash and a $250 million promissory note due five years after the transaction’s closing date. The promissory note will be secured by the WSOP intellectual property assets being sold. As a part of this transaction, Caesars (CZR) has secured the right from NSUS to continue hosting the WSOP’s flagship live tournament series at its Las Vegas casinos for the next 20 years. In addition, brick-and-mortar poker rooms currently operated by Caesars (CZR) will continue to feature WSOP branding, and the company’s destinations will continue to enjoy preferential rights to host live WSOP Circuit events going forward. Also, Caesars Digital will receive a license from NSUS to continue operating the recently upgraded WSOP Online real-money poker business in Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania for the foreseeable future, but will otherwise be restricted from operating online peer-to-peer real-money poker operations for a specified period of time and subject to certain exceptions.