Hidden Valley

What is Hidden Valley?

Two blockbuster developments in the casino space earlier this year seemed to indicate an increasingly bullish bet on the sector, including Fertitta Entertainment’s acquisition of Caesars Entertainment in May. The other is a subsequent takeover offer of MGM Resorts from its largest shareholder, Barry Diller’s People Inc. But a negative shift in market conditions could affect both deals.

In July, Fertitta’s General Counsel Steven Scheinthal told the Nevada Gaming Control Board that the company had a letter of intent from banks to finance the transaction but was waiting for better borrowing conditions. Fertitta is assuming nearly $12 billion in Caesars’ debt and is committed to a $6.6 billion financing package.

“Our hope is that in the next few months there will be a window of opportunity where the market will be hotter and [it’s] a more interest rate friendly environment where we can go raise the money and then just put it in an escrow account,” Scheinthal said at the time.

How to play Hidden Valley

CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) and the index provider announced a partnership in July. With the MLB deal in place, the exchange operator will offer derivatives based on the baseball indexes.

“The agreement paves the way for CME Group to list weekly, monthly and quarterly cash-settled futures contracts, pending regulatory review, based on the CME FSPI MLB benchmarks,” according to a statement issued by FutureSports.

Launch dates for the MLB team futures contracts weren’t revealed, but spring training for the 2027 season commences on Friday, Feb. 19, according to the league schedule.

About Hidden Valley

While simulations and validation exercises had helped Kambi prepare for the traffic and operational demands of the 2026 World Cup, testing could not establish how performance would compare with the wider market once the football began.

Independent analysis by Bettormetrics found Kambi partners either led or shared the lead on measures including time to market, live uptime and bet delay. It also outperformed its B2C and B2B competitors on live uptime in World Cup markets including over/unders on total goals.

“All the testing in the world cannot tell you precisely where you stand against the rest of the market on key aspects of the product,” Lamb says. “It was very positive to see Kambi as a leader in these key metrics.”