Buckle Up

What is Buckle Up?

Over the decades, Carlson said, he spoke to dozens of residents of the area in the ’60s and ’70s who “never heard the name.”

The name didn’t sit well with Naked City’s property owners, including Bob Stupak, who, in 1979, opened the Vegas World casino resort on land he owned in the neighborhood.

In 1996, Stupak replaced Vegas World with the Stratosphere—whose 1,149-foot observation tower remains the largest structure west of the Mississippi—remodeling Vegas World’s towers for the new purpose.

About Buckle Up

One answer is that the industry is no longer being valued primarily on the promise of endless growth. The market instead wants to see profit, cash generation and manageable regulation maintained across all facets of a listed business. Ed Birkin, managing director of H2 Gambling Capital, says the longer-term decline in gambling stocks runs much deeper than just changes to earnings forecasts.

“The industry share price declines have been much more severe than the cut to earnings projections which means that, while there may be some weakening in some companies’ fundamental growth drivers, the valuations that investors are putting on them have been the main driver of share price declines – although weaker fundamentals lead to lower valuations, so the reality is that they’re completely intertwined.”

Entain’s demotion comes after another – and arguably more significant – symbolic move by Flutter Entertainment. Flutter began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in January 2024 and later moved its primary listing from London to New York.

How to play Buckle Up

Like Betsson, Stake is trying to combine its global scale with a deep understanding of local markets in LatAm. It now holds local LatAm licences in Colombia, Brazil, Peru and Mexico, as well as the Province of Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Having received its licence in Peru in August 2024, Escobar argues Stake’s global scale delivers an advantage only when it is paired with a deep understanding of the Peruvian market and its players.

“We benefit from world-class technology, a market-leading product and one of the strongest brands in the industry, but success isn’t achieved simply by bringing a global platform into a new market,” Escobar says. “We’ve invested heavily in understanding Peruvian players, building local partnerships, working with creators, supporting football and tailoring our marketing and customer experience to local preferences.