How to Sell an Online Casino: A Step-by-Step Guide for Owners
Selling an online casino is not like selling a content website. A buyer is acquiring a regulated revenue stream, a player database, payment relationships and, in most cases, a licence position that cannot simply be handed over. Owners who prepare properly sell faster and at better terms. Owners who do not usually find out during due diligence, when the price starts to move.
This guide sets out the sequence that specialist iGaming brokers such as CasinosBroker.com follow when they take a casino to market.
1. Decide what you are actually selling
There are three common structures:
- Share sale – the buyer acquires the company that holds the licence, contracts and bank accounts. This is often the only way to keep a licence in place, but it brings the company's history with it.
- Asset sale – the buyer takes the brand, domains, player database (where data protection rules allow), creative and content, but needs its own licence or platform arrangement.
- White-label brand sale – the brand and marketing assets move to a new owner, while the licence remains with the white-label provider. The buyer must agree terms with that provider.
The structure affects which buyers can bid, how long the deal takes and what regulators need to approve.
2. Clean up the numbers
Buyers price an operator on reliable earnings. Before going to market, reconcile gross gaming revenue (GGR) and net gaming revenue (NGR) against your platform back-office reports, separate bonus cost and payment fees, and strip out personal or one-off expenses. Twelve to twenty-four months of monthly figures is the minimum serious buyers expect.
3. Prepare the documents buyers will ask for
- Monthly P&L and deposit, GGR and NGR reports from the platform
- Licence documents and any correspondence with the regulator
- Payment provider and platform contracts, including change-of-control clauses
- Player cohort data: active players, first-time depositors, retention by month
- Marketing and affiliate agreements, with revenue-share and CPA terms
- Chargeback and fraud history
4. Set a realistic price range
Online casinos are usually valued on a multiple of normalised earnings (EBITDA or seller's discretionary earnings), sometimes cross-checked against NGR. The multiple moves with licence quality, market mix, revenue trend, owner dependency and how much of the business depends on one traffic source or one payment provider. A broker should give you a range with the reasoning behind it, not a single headline number.
5. Market the business confidentially
At CasinosBroker, the first document buyers see is a blind teaser: asset type, market, key metrics and licence category, with no brand name or domain. Detailed information, including the confidential information memorandum (CIM), is released only after a buyer signs a non-disclosure agreement. This protects the business from competitors, staff and players learning about the sale too early.
6. Qualify buyers before they see the data room
Not every interested party can close. Check proof of funds, operator or acquisition track record, and whether the buyer can obtain the regulatory approvals the deal requires. CasinosBroker works with a network of more than 1,000 qualified iGaming buyers, which allows a mandate to be shown to a targeted group rather than broadcast widely.
7. Negotiate the letter of intent
The LOI fixes price, structure, any earnout or deferred payment, exclusivity period, due diligence timetable and the transition support you will provide. Most of the value is decided here, so read the payment mechanics as carefully as the headline price.
8. Due diligence, signing and escrow
Buyers will reconcile your reported revenue against platform data, review player and KYC records, check payment provider status and confirm the licence position. Funds are typically held in escrow and released against agreed handover steps, which protects both sides.
How long does it take?
Across 52 closed transactions since 2021, CasinosBroker's median time from signed mandate to completion is 90 days, with the fastest deal closing in 13 days. Deals that need regulator approval for a change of control usually take longer.
Key points
- Choose the deal structure first; it determines the buyer pool.
- Reconcile GGR and NGR to platform reports before marketing.
- Never release identifying information before an NDA is signed.
- Licence transfers and change-of-control approvals should be confirmed with a gaming lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction.
CasinosBroker.com is an iGaming M&A brokerage operated by BMF Digital SRL, Romania. Contact: [email protected].