Sightline Payments raised $244 million in a new funding round that propelled the company to unicorn status, with a valuation topping $1 billion, the first tech startup in Nevada to do so, the company said in a press release on Tuesday (Aug. 17).
The funding was led by Bill Foley’s Cannae Holdings, with participation from existing investors Genting Group, Point Break Capital Management and founding investor Walter Kortschak. Sightline Payments is one of about 700 startups around the globe to have earned a valuation topping $1 billion as a private company, according to the press release.
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“Sightline has continuously risen to meet the changing needs of the casino gaming industry. As we strive to help lead the digital transformation of the patron experience in our vertical, we are humbled to become Nevada’s first FinTech unicorn,” said Omer Sattar, co-founder and executive vice president of Sightline.
Sattar added that the legal digital gaming space has been a bit left behind when it comes to financial services, but Sightline has advanced solutions for the sector, which is sitting on the brink of an “omnichannel cashless revolution.”
Gaming is one of the last industries that still stands as one that is largely still operating as “cash-centric,” the company said in the release, with “hundreds of billions of dollars” going through casinos every year.
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Sattar founded Sightline in 2001 with Tom Sears and Kirk Sanford, with the mission of extending a safe, seamless payment method for gaming consumers. The company initially offered its services to gamers in New Jersey, where online gaming was legalized in 2013.
Since that time, Sightline stayed in the driver’s seat and was ready when the federal ban on sports betting was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2018. Today, Sightline said it leads the industry in technological advancements in cashless gaming in physical casinos, according to the release.
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“After seeing Sightline’s groundbreaking technology firsthand at the recent launch of Resorts World Las Vegas, I am more bullish than ever about Sightline’s ability to be at the forefront of the digital transformation afoot in the North American gaming, sports, and entertainment ecosystem,” said Cannae Holdings Chairman William P. Foley II.
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