KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Caesars’ net loss widened and its EBITDA dipped in Q3 2026 amid its approved take-private buyout by Fertitta Entertainment.
- Caesars Digital EBITDA surged but Citizens analysts believe it is losing market share in both sports and casino.
- Recent conversations at G2E suggested the company could look to sell off some land-based assets.
Caesars Entertainment no longer holds earnings calls now that it is in the process of being acquired by Fertitta Entertainment. That means its top-line and bottom-line numbers do more of the talking, and Q3 2026 made for mixed reading for the Las Vegas giant.
Caesars reported on Tuesday that while its net revenue held flat year over year at $2.9bn for the three months ended Sept. 30, its net loss more than doubled from $55m to $123m, and adjusted EBITDA dipped from $884m to $865m.
Q3 was the second consecutive quarterly report that was not accompanied by an earnings call with executives, in light of the company’s imminent transition from a publicly listed firm to a private company.
Caesars shareholders voted on Sept. 22 to approve the $17.6bn merger agreement with Tilman Fertitta‘s company, which was announced and approved by the Caesars board in May and has a preliminary closing date of June 26, 2027. Caesars will come out the other side as a wholly owned subsidiary of privately held entity Fertitta Gaming and will delist from the Nasdaq.
Caesars Digital grows modestly, but analysts say it lost market share
Caesars Digital’s online casino and sports betting business posted by far the biggest EBITDA gains year over year, up 57.1% from $28m to $44m, and the online segment’s revenue ticked up 4.8% to $326m. However, that came at a cost. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, the net loss attributable to the Digital segment nearly tripled from $18m to $53m.
Earlier on Tuesday, Citizens published data suggesting that Caesars lost U.S. market share in both online casino and online sports betting in the last 12 months.
Citizens estimated that Caesars’ online sports betting market handle fell by 34 basis points year over year from 5.2% to 4.9%, while its gross gaming revenue market share in sports declined 46 basis points from 4.1% to 3.6%. That puts it in fifth place for sports wagering handle share behind DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, and BetMGM, and in sixth place behind that quartet and the growing bet365 in sports GGR share.
Caesars’ year-over-year decline in online casino market share was even steeper, with its estimated iGaming market share of 6.4% down 73 basis points from Q3 2025’s 7.1%, leaving it ranked fourth behind FanDuel, DraftKings, and rising BetRivers operator Rush Street Interactive.
Caesars CEO Reeg confident in Vegas visitation amid declines
Elsewhere, Caesars Q3 report showed that:
- The Las Vegas segment’s revenue declined 2.3% year-over-year to $930m and its adjusted EBITDA fell 9.5% to $343m, although the segment’s net loss improved 40% from $132m to $79m.
- The Regional segment posted a revenue increase of 5.9% to $1.6bn and adjusted EBITDA rose 3.6% to $524m, but its net loss grew 17.9% to $66m.
Despite the Vegas dip, CEO Tom Reeg said at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) a month ago that he is confident that Caesars and the Nevada market in general are slowly rebounding to pre-pandemic levels.
Reeg also spoke on a casinos CEO panel hosted by CNBC correspondent Contessa Brewer about what he believes are the big benefits of Fertitta’s takeover.
“What’s exciting for me about the combination is we’re combining into a restaurant and hospitality business that has over 400 outlets across the country, and you can combine them into a single ecosystem,” Reeg said. “That’s a big opportunity for us.”
The CEO also said that he is pleased that the take-private deal will give Caesars “a longer-term perspective” as the company will no longer be operating as a “90-day” business for the purposes of earnings calls with investors abd analysts.
“We’re forced as public companies to think in 90-day increments far more than is healthy, because that’s not how you run a business,” Reeg said.
Could Caesars sell off casinos after Fertitta takeover?
Brewer also asked Reeg in the G2E main stage session on Sept. 29 whether Caesars may look to divest any properties once it is formally part of Fertitta Entertainment.
“There are markets that are not particularly material to the whole enterprise, so you shouldn’t be surprised if there’s a property or two that ultimately gets divested,” the CEO replied, although he added that he would not expect any such sales to be “needle-movers” in terms of news headlines.
Speaking on a separate G2E panel assessing M&A possibilities in Las Vegas, GMA Consulting Senior Advisor Alex Dixon speculated that Nevada assets like the Linq or Flamingo, as well as regional properties in states like Louisiana, could be on the chopping block. He also forecasted that Caesars may be more impacted than rivals like MGM Resorts International by the arrival of the new Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on the site of the former Mirage, which is currently under construction.
“I think, ultimately, the minute this closes, the deleveraging story starts,” said Dixon, who is a former Caesars and MGM leader and was briefly the CEO of Resorts World Las Vegas in 2025. “You can take some prime assets that are near the center of the Strip that have been recently renovated, and so if you’re going to sell them, sell them now and you get the most out of the CapEx you put into them … I think there’s a small window to say, ‘hey, let’s get these assets offloaded and de-lever while we can.'”
Dixon opined that he expects Caesars to benefit in the long run from Fertitta’s ownership, calling the business magnate “a well-heeled, well-financed billionaire who can stomach operating losses.”
