Interview with Innovation Capital’s Matt Sodl
Have you ever wondered what it would take to invest in your very own casino? Where would you get the money to do so, and how would it even come together? After all, if the “house always wins,” wouldn’t it be nice to be a part of the house?
URComped CEO Craig Shacklett had the opportunity to sit down with one of the men who makes those kinds of dreams come true, Matt Sodl. Sodl is the founding partner, President, and Managing Director of Innovation Capital. Sodl shares his story on how he and his company put casino buyers and sellers together, in order to transform everyone’s casino dreams into reality. Listen to podcast version.
Matt Sodl, Founding Partner, President & Managing Director:
Innovation Capital | Courtesy Innovation Capital
Sodl explains that he began his career following a stint at Columbia University. The three-year Ivy League football starter says he always enjoyed finance. After graduating from Columbia, he moved to Southern California to obtain his Masters in Business Administration and ended up working for Citigroup Leveraged Finance. It was here that he “learned a lot about leveraged buy-outs and highly-leveraged transactions from a commercial bank’s perspective” (2:19). This experience led to his desire to do more conventional investment banking involving public offerings, which ultimately led him to a company called Schroder Wertheim. There, he met leading gaming hospitality and research analyst John Rose. Sodl says working at Schroder Wertheim taught him about the industry, and he met a ton of Senior Executives who were up in commerce through the gaming industry. Sodl says he “cut his teeth” there, learning the business. That experience led him to Merrill Lynch, working in their gaming leisure practice in Los Angeles, where he worked for about five years before leaving to start Innovation Capital in the early 2000s.
Craig noted that Sodl’s rise in the industry corresponded with the increase in Tribal gaming across the United States. Sodl explains that he noticed a hole in funding for these smaller casinos. The large investment banks had the capital for the major casinos, and there was a need for financing for these mid-level properties–and he believed doing so would have a “lot of opportunities to create relationships and build a firm really focusing on those mid-sized companies” (5:00).
For Sodl, his business is based on relationships. As he explains, “When a tribe or a company in a casino is looking to buy, build, or expand their casino, the first thing we need to do is to hire a Gaming Consultant to help them dictate how big that market opportunity is. How much revenue do they think they’ll be able to generate from the slot machines that they could have their property?” (6:25). Then they “retain and engage.” Innovation Capital then puts together the marketing documents to sell that business. From there, they orchestrate an auction to bring in qualified buyers. In addition, “we determine who’s the most qualified buyer from a financial perspective from a licensing standpoint and who could really get the deal done. When we determine who that party is, we enter into… our client enters into a definitive agreement with the buyer of the property. And we help work with the legal team to go get those documents in shape and that deal gets signed, it gets submitted” (8:25). His firm is paid when that buyer gets licensed and is deemed worthy by that state to buy that property and the transaction closes. Conversely, for those looking for capital, it works the same way, as his company’s job is to source out the most attractive financing available. His company differs from the major companies, like Merrill Lynch, by taking on the smaller players. Innovation Capital is doing the same type of work, just making it accessible to the smaller players in the gaming world, which enables them flexibility.
Innovation Capital also sets itself apart by dealing with a lot of Tribal Casinos, which are built on Sovereign Land. Because of this, investors can’t take a lien out on the property, as they would in a traditional casino environment. Instead of traditional property liens, the lender now has interest in the machines themselves. As Sodl explains, “the lenders have the level of the leverage by virtue of their ability to shut off the machines and work that out with the tribe, which they would never do. But it gives them the financial leverage to negotiate with the tribe. The tribe doesn’t want those machines shut off because that cash flow provides distributions to the tribe, which they need. But the lenders need to get paid interest. So a negotiation needs to take place between the tribe and the lenders because ultimately both parties are aligned. The deal needs to work for both interests” (15:47).
Craig was curious as to how an outside group without gaming experience would go about purchasing a casino–and even if that is feasible. While Sodl says it has happened, it is not very common, due to “management execution reasons” (24:39). Because there are financial as well as regulatory and licensing issues, it is difficult to make those types of deals work. That said, it is Innovative Capital’s job to vet these entities out to see if the deal can be made and if so, they are willing to facilitate.
Finally, Sodl says he doesn’t foresee an influx of casinos looking to sell off anytime soon, even in the light of COVID closures. According to Sodl, there has been such a “pent up demand” for gaming that casinos are thriving even with reduced capacity (30:11).
So, what is on the horizon, in Sodl’s mind? He says sports and Internet gaming. According to Sodl, COVID closures created an increased demand for gaming from one’s home. He explains that the lack of sports due to COVID has also created a thirst that casinos can quench as we continue to see sports begin once again. And while the casinos make very little on sports betting, Sodl says casinos that offer enhanced sports betting opportunities will create greater brand loyalty, and ultimately, more consumers.
Matt Sodl is the founding partner, President, and Managing Director of Innovation Capital, a leading boutique investment bank dedicated to representing mid-market clients in the gaming, leisure, restaurant, and retail industries.