Royal Panda, LeoVegas to Pull Out of Japan, India

As its purchase by MGM Resorts comes closer to closing, LeoVegas Group announced that they'll be pulling their Royal Panda and LeoVegas brands from Japan and India at the end of this month.

The company explained the decision by noting that the group will be focusing on regulated markets. MGM is looking to expand its online presence outside of North America and made the $607 million purchase of LeoVegas to achieve this goal. With MGM being a large betting brand, it will be important to ensure that its online brands are operating legally, as operating in grey markets could cost the land casino giant an opportunity to move into markets if they decide to legalize betting.

In a statement, a LeoVegas spokesperson said, "The group's strategy is […] to grow on locally-regulated (and soon to be regulated) markets. We continuously conduct strategic overviews of our group brands and the markets they are present in, seeing that we want to make sure that they fill a clear long-term purpose."

Japan has moved to legalize casino gambling in its country, but has also been slow to move through the process of approving gaming licenses and resort plans.

MGM said that it expects its purchase of LeoVegas to close by September 7th after it obtained regulatory approvals to complete the deal.