Century Casinos Sells Its Two Alberta Racinos for $16.4m and Sheds $7.5m a Year in VICI Rent

Century Mile and Century Downs go to Highfield Investment Group, a Calgary developer with a thoroughbred racing business, at 6.1 times last year's EBITDA. The rent Century stops paying is worth nearly half the price every year, which is why the deal matters more to its balance sheet than its proceeds suggest.

• Century Casinos has agreed to sell the racing and gaming operations of Century Mile Racetrack and Casino in Edmonton and Century Downs Racetrack and Casino near Calgary to Highfield Investment Group for about $16.4 million (C$23.2 million), which it says is 6.1 times the two properties' 2025 EBITDA
• VICI Properties owns the real estate: it will take both properties out of its master lease with Century, cutting Century's annual rent by about $7.5 million (C$10.7 million), and sign Highfield to a new 20-year lease at the same rent, guaranteed by Highfield
• Century says it will use the proceeds to reduce its debt, which stood at $336.5 million at 30 June, and its co-chief executives call the sale a step towards "concentrating our resources on our U.S. properties"
• Century keeps its Edmonton and St. Albert casinos in Alberta and its six casinos in Poland, which it has said are also within the strategic review it began in August 2025
• The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals the companies did not name; Century's Alberta licences come from the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) and Horse Racing Alberta

Century Sells the Racetracks and Hands the Lease to the Buyer

Century Casinos, the Nasdaq-listed operator based in Colorado Springs, said on Monday 28 September that it had signed a definitive agreement to sell the racing and gaming operations of Century Mile in Edmonton and Century Downs to Highfield Investment Group for an aggregate price of approximately $16.4 million, or C$23.2 million at the exchange rate on 27 September. Century said the price represents "a 6.1x multiple of FY 2025 EBITDA", which implies combined 2025 EBITDA of about $2.7 million for the two properties. It did not say how the price divides between them.

Century owns all of Century Mile and 75% of Century Downs, a racetrack and entertainment centre in Balzac, just north of Calgary, according to its quarterly filing; unaffiliated shareholders own the remaining 25%. The release does not say how much of the proceeds goes to those minority partners. Macquarie Capital was Century's exclusive financial adviser and Field Law its legal counsel.

The land and buildings are not Century's to sell. Subsidiaries of VICI Properties own the real estate under both properties and lease it to Century under a triple-net master lease that also covers most of its other casinos. At closing, Century and VICI will amend that lease to remove the two racetracks, and Century's annual rent will fall by about $7.5 million, or C$10.7 million, the company said.

VICI Keeps the Rent and Gains a Seventeenth Tenant

VICI announced the other side of the transaction the same day. It will sign a new, separate triple-net lease with a Highfield subsidiary at an initial annual base rent of C$10.7 million, escalating as under the existing master lease if closing slips past 1 January 2027. The lease runs for a new 20-year term with four five-year renewal options, escalates at the greater of 1.25% and Canadian inflation, capped at 2.5%, requires minimum capital spending of 1% of each property's annual net revenue, and is guaranteed by Highfield Investment Group. "There will be no change to the aggregate rent collected by VICI," it said. Highfield becomes VICI's 17th tenant.

John Payne, VICI's president and chief operating officer, said the transaction "helps to deleverage the Century balance sheet". Adrian Munro, Highfield's president, said the company would implement "a business plan to modernize the racetracks".

Highfield describes itself as a diversified, privately held investment and development company in Calgary with nearly 50 years in real estate, hospitality, agriculture, property management and energy services, and more than 20 years in Western Canadian thoroughbred racing "as a breeder, owner and operator". Munro is also president of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society, according to Thoroughbred Daily News, and its vice president of racing entertainment centres, Paul Ryneveld, has 38 years of experience in North American racing, the publication reported.

Century Is Deleveraging Under a Strategic Review

Century's Board began a strategic review in August 2025 covering possible mergers, a sale of the company and divestments, "including our Poland casinos", according to its quarterly report for the period to 30 June. At that date it had $336.5 million of debt, $331.6 million of it a Goldman Sachs term loan due in April 2029 at a weighted average rate of 9.83%, and $60.2 million in cash. It reported a net loss attributable to shareholders of $27.4 million for the first half. Its long-term financing obligation to VICI stood at $708.0 million.

"This transaction improves our financial flexibility and operational efficiency as we focus on our core U.S. assets," said the co-chief executives, Erwin Haitzmann and Peter Hoetzinger. Century said the sale is expected to reduce its lease-adjusted net leverage on a pro forma basis.

The two racetracks operate in a changing provincial market. The AGLC has extended a temporary increase in the share of slot machine net sales retained by casinos, from 15% to 17%, until 31 March 2029, Century's filing says, and a competitor's plan to move a casino from Camrose to south Edmonton, about 11 miles from Century Mile, must be reapplied for after a judicial review in May. Alberta also opened a regulated iGaming market on 13 July.

The Rent Cut Is Worth More Than the Price

The headline number is $16.4 million, but the figure that changes Century's position is the $7.5 million of annual rent it stops paying. Against 2025 EBITDA of roughly $2.7 million implied by the multiple, the two racetracks were carrying a rent bill almost three times their earnings on that measure, although the release does not say whether the EBITDA figure is struck before or after rent. The cash proceeds would retire only about 5% of the term loan. Removing a fixed obligation of $7.5 million a year, with inflation escalators attached, does more for a lease-adjusted leverage ratio than the cash does, which is why Century framed the benefit in exactly those terms.

VICI Has Swapped One Tenant's Credit for Another's, on Its Own Terms

For the landlord, the deal is close to neutral on paper: the same C$10.7 million, a fresh 20-year term and a parent guarantee from a private developer with a large land and industrial portfolio. VICI's consent was the gating item, and its terms show it gave up no rent to let Century leave. The risk it takes is concentration in a single-province private operator in place of a listed group whose master lease spans many properties. Highfield's guarantee and its racing background are what VICI is relying on, and a modernisation plan that has not been published is what Highfield is relying on.

Century Is Becoming a US Regional Operator With a Polish Question

Century still owns two Alberta casinos and a majority of Casinos Poland, which its own filings put in scope for divestment. Selling the racinos first takes out two rent-heavy Canadian assets and moves the company towards the US footprint its co-chief executives now call "core". With a term loan at nearly 10% due in 2029, further sales look likely, but each one depends on a landlord willing to re-let and a buyer willing to take on the rent.

Century has sold two racetracks for a little over two years of their rent. The price was never the point: the lease was.