BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Gaming to Individual / Owner-Operator buyers
Owner-operators, SBA-financed independent buyers, and smaller management buyouts. Pricing reflects what an individual can finance (typically 10-25% down + SBA 7(a)) and operate hands-on. Below typical PE engagement size.
Quick answers
- What multiple does this buyer pool pay?
- Median EV/EBITDA 9.46x across 17 disclosed deals (P25: 6.9x, P75: 15.06x). Median EV/Revenue 2.4x across 22 deals. Median deal value: $57.02M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 23 deals total (2 from 2018+), filtered to Individual / Owner-Operator acquirers of gaming businesses.
- Most active buyers
- Supercell Oy (1) · Direct Investment Japan, Co. Ltd. (1) · Caesars Holdings, Inc. (:CZR) (1) · Flipside, Inc. (1)
Recent disclosed deals
Individual / Owner-Operator acquisitions of gaming businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Space Ape, Inc. | Supercell Oy | $49.8M | — | 0.91x |
| 2006 | Direct Equity International, Inc. | Direct Investment Japan, Co. Ltd. | $1.2M | — | 160.92x |
| 2003 | Horseshoe Gaming Holding, LLC | Caesars Holdings, Inc. (:CZR) | $1317.5M | 7.8x | 1.70x |
What this buyer pool prices for
Individual buyers — owner-operators, SBA-financed independents, smaller management buyouts — price for what they can finance (typically 10-25% down with SBA 7(a) loans up to $5M deal value) and operate hands-on. Multiples are below PE / strategic because the buyer is taking the owner-operator role, not stepping in as institutional capital. Owner-dependency and seasonality matter more here than to a PE buyer.
Methodology note
Multiples shown are computed from disclosed M&A transactions in the ExitValue.ai database, filtered to gaming businesses acquired by individual / owner-operator buyers. EV/EBITDA outliers outside the [0.5x, 60x] band and EV/Revenue outliers outside [0.05x, 25x] are excluded from medians. Where available, post-2018 transactions are weighted; otherwise the all-time sample is used. Deal counts shown reflect deals with disclosed financials only — total transaction count for this buyer pool is typically 2-3x larger. Full methodology
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