Esports Entertainment Endures Miserable Week, Analyst Highlights Liquidity… – Casino.Org News

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     Posted on: February 25, 2022, 02:12h.&nbsp;     <br>         Last updated on: February 25, 2022, 03:16h.     <div class="post-info-panel">         <div class="post-info-panel__author-holder js-open-close">                         <div class="post-info-panel__author-logo">                 <img alt='Todd Shriber' src='https://axxess.ar/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2-copy.jpg' class='avatar avatar-96 photo' height='96' width='96' />            </div>             <div class="post-info-panel__author-content">                 <div class="post-info-panel__author-info">                     <span class="post-info-panel__author-name">                         <a title="Todd Shriber"                            href="https://www.casino.org/news/author/todd-shriber/">                             Todd Shriber                        </a>                                                     <a href="https://twitter.com/etfgodfather" class="post-info-panel__author-tag" ref="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@etfgodfather</a>                                                     </span>                     <a href="#"                        class="post-info-panel__opener tablet-none js-opener">Read More</a>                                              <div class="post-info-panel__expertise">                             Expertise:                             <span class="post-info-panel__expertise-items">                                                                     <a class="post-info-panel__expertise-link"                                        href="https://www.casino.org/news/financial/"                                        title="Financial">Financial</a>,                                    <a class="post-info-panel__expertise-link"                                        href="https://www.casino.org/news/gaming-business/"                                        title="Gaming Business">Gaming Business</a>,                                    <a class="post-info-panel__expertise-link"                                        href="https://www.casino.org/news/mergers-and-acquisitions/"                                        title="Mergers and Acquisitions">Mergers and Acquisitions</a>.                            </span>                         </div>                                     </div>                 <ul class="social-list">                                             <li class="social-list__item">                             <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddshriber/" class="social-list__link icon-linkedin" ref="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>                         </li>                                                 <li class="social-list__item">                             <a href="mailto:[email protected]" class="social-list__link icon-mail" ref="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>                         </li>                                                 <li class="social-list__item">                             <a href="https://twitter.com/etfgodfather" class="social-list__link icon-twitter" ref="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>                         </li>                                         </ul>                             </div>         </div>     </div>      <br>Esports Entertainment Group (NASDAQ:GMBL) shed nearly two-thirds of its value this week. That&#8217;s after the company missed fourth-quarter estimates and cut 2022 guidance, prompting an analyst to question the firm&#8217;s liquidity position.<br>Earlier this week, the Malta-based gaming and sports betting company said its fourth-quarter sales missed Wall Street forecasts by 22%, and it slashed its 2022 revenue guidance by 25% to 30%. After the stock tumbled 8.62% on Tuesday, it plunged 58.25% on Wednesday. The shares slid another 5.65% on volume that was more than double the daily average. Additionally, Esports Entertainment&#8217;s cash position is increasingly precarious.<br><strong>With minimal cash ($1M at Dec&#8217; 31), GMBL is relying on its ATM to fund monthly cash burn of ~$1.3M, where $16M remained on the ATM as of Feb. 18,”</strong> said <a href="https://www.casino.org/news/at-least-eight-analysts-pare-draftkings-price-target/">Roth Capital analyst Edward Engel</a> in a note to clients.<br>Engel starts coverage of Esports Entertainment with a “neutral” rating and a $1.40 price target. That implies upside of 20.6% from the Feb. 25 close. Over the past year, the stock plunged 93.3%.<br>Adding to investors&#8217; concerns about the company&#8217;s financial state, Esports Entertainment is attempting to renegotiate the terms of <a href="https://www.casino.org/news/at-least-eight-analysts-pare-draftkings-price-target/">a convertible debt offering</a>. That offering gives bondholders rights to convert to stock at $17.50 a share &#8212; a price the stock hasn&#8217;t traded at since last April.<br>That convertible offering was worth $35 million, and while the company&#8217;s management team believes it will be successful in getting bondholders to agree to new terms, Roth&#8217;s Engel says more transparency is needed around the company&#8217;s capital structure.<br>“Limited transparency in GMBL&#8217;s eventual cap structure makes it difficult to properly value shares, and we believe only special situation investors should consider investing,” said the analyst. “If taken at face value, GMBL&#8217;s implied 0.9x EV to FY22 sales is extremely cheap. But we have little conviction in GMBL&#8217;s eventual cap structure within ~6 months.”<br>Engel also criticized the operator for lack of transparency regarding its <a href="https://www.casino.org/news/maxima-compliance-looks-to-help-local-gaming-operators-in-the-netherlands/">Netherlands exposure</a>, noting rivals made clear to investors they were departing that market.<br><strong>“We believe mgmt should have disclosed its Netherlands exposure and updated guidance earlier, where peer such as Entain, 888 and Kindred disclosed exiting the market on Oct. 1,” </strong>noted Engel.<br>Esports Entertainment is in the process of soft launching its technology for esports wagering in New Jersey. Should that effort bear fruit, it&#8217;s an obvious catalyst for the downtrodden stock.<br>Wagering on competitive computer gaming is viewed as a future growth driver for the US sports betting industry. But it’s one that hasn’t been tapped into in a significant fashion yet. Still, there are a lot of moving parts to a bullish thesis for this stock.<br><strong>“While we remain positive on GMBL&#8217;s long-term opportunities, particularly within eSports wagering, a combination of liquidity concerns and reduced transparency limits our conviction. We acknowledge a bullish scenario where GMBL exceeds its latest guidance, shores up liquidity, repairs investor confidence, and erases recent share price declines,” </strong>concludes Engel.<br><span id="email-notes">Your email address will not be published.</span><br><input id="wp-comment-cookies-consent" name="wp-comment-cookies-consent" type="checkbox" value="yes"  required aria-required="true" /><label for="wp-comment-cookies-consent" class="comment-cookies is-cookies">Name, email and comment will be stored in our database.</label><br> <label for="comment">Comment <span class="required">*</span></label>  <textarea id="comment" placeholder="Comment" name="comment" cols="45" rows="8" maxlength="65525" required="required"></textarea><br><label for="author">Name <span class="required">*</span></label> <input id="author" name="author" type="text" placeholder="Name" value="" size="30" maxlength="245"  required aria-required="true"/><br><label for="email">Email <span class="required">*</span></label> <input id="email" name="email"  placeholder="Email" value="" size="30" maxlength="100" aria-describedby="email-notes"   type="email"  required aria-required="true"/><br><input name="submit" type="submit" id="submit" class="submit" value="Post Comment" /> <input type='hidden' name='comment_post_ID' value='202837' id='comment_post_ID' /> <input type='hidden' name='comment_parent' id='comment_parent' value='0' /> <br><input type="hidden" id="akismet_comment_nonce" name="akismet_comment_nonce" value="8752112153" /><br><input type="hidden" id="ak_js" name="ak_js" value="47"/><br>                 Casino.org is the world’s leading independent online gaming authority, providing trusted online casino                 news, guides, reviews and information since 1995.            <br><img             alt="stats" width="1" height="1" src="https://axxess.ar/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/232375ns.gif"/><br><br><a href="https://www.casino.org/news/esports-entertainment-plunges-analyst-questions-liquidity/">source</a>