MGM Resorts

BRANDS

Bellagio
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
Aria Resort & Casino
Park MGM
MGM Grand Las Vegas
T-Mobile Arena
MGM China
Borgata
MGM Resorts International Aviation fleet
BetMGM

HISTORY

After Kirk Kerkorian obtained a controlling stake in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1969, the businessman went on to open a number of hotels. The first MGM Grand Hotel and Casino was opened in 1973, followed quickly by MGM Grand Reno in 1978.

A few years later, in 1980, the film studio and the casino divisions of MGM officially split, with MGM Grand Hotels running the gambling operations. By 1986, Kerkorian founded a subsidiary of his businesses Grand Name Co, which was renamed one year later to MGM Grand.

Despite founder Steve Wynn initially rejecting the deal, the merger between Mirage Resorts and MGM was closed in May 2000 for $4.4bn, plus an additional $2bn in assumed debt. Through this, MGM took ownership of the Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Boardwalk; and Golden Nugget casinos in Las Vegas, the Golden Nugget in Laughlin, and the Beau Rivage in Mississippi and half of the Monte Carlo.

Following the merger, MGM Grand changed its name to MGM Mirage in August 2000.

MGM Mirage moved to enter the UK market in 2003, signing a number of deals for venues across the country and launching an online casino. Due to uncertainty surrounding regulations and competition, MGM closed or abandoned these plans and abandoned the British markets within a few years.

The second notable merger from MGM closed on 25 April, 2005, with the acquisition of Mandalay reportedly worth $7.9bn. Until the Harrah's Caesars merger, this briefly made MGM the largest gambling company in the world.

In 2010, MGM Mirage changed its name again, this time to MGM Resorts International.

The year of 2016 proved to be a busy one for MGM. In April, MGM sold The Shops at Crystals to CityCenter for $1.1bn. A few months later, in August, MGM bought the Borgata for $900m. It then sold the property for $1.2bn to MGP and leased it for $100m a year.

With the sports betting ban being dissolved by the US Supreme Court in 2018, MGM entered into a joint venture with Entain to create BetMGM, the exclusive online sports betting platform of the brand.

Since its launch, BetMGM has been the official betting partner of several US sports leagues, including the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey League (NFL) and Major League Basketball (MLB).