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What is Empress Charm?
“We are deliberately not pursuing an aggressive expansion agenda in the early months,” he explains. “We want to prioritise integration and consolidating our existing positions first, and only look at new market entry once we are confident the operational foundations are in place.”
Some analysts have questioned whether this deal marks the beginning of an M&A spree for GiG as it looks to re-enter the B2C space.
But that isn’t the case according to Richards: “We are not signalling plans to re-enter B2C elsewhere; Africa is a distinct case: a high-growth, underpenetrated region where owning a local operator makes strategic sense in a way it may not elsewhere.”
About Empress Charm
The logic is simple. A 75‑minute loop that people willingly sit through more than once needs fresh experiences. So, the world’s most technologically advanced theater just made itself more technologically advanced.
It’s still the same movie experience—just with more of the room participating.
These six additions sit on top of the effects that have been running since opening day on Aug. 28, 2025: tornado winds, swirling debris, fog, haptic seats, fire bursts, falling apples, and the flying monkeys version 1.0.
This is the marquee upgrade. In 2025, it was enough for physical monkeys to appear to fly off the screen and over your head. But more than 3.6 million people have already seen that stupid pet trick. The first-gen monkeys were 16-foot helium inflatables steered by drone operators. Their only motion, besides drifting forward, was wing-flapping. They floated more than they performed.
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But what has changed is what shareholders want those companies to prove – and the price they are willing to pay for that proof.
Fantini points to land-based examples like Red Rock Resorts and Monarch Casino as companies that can still attract capital because they offer sensible growth and strong management. That is a telling comparison with the industry’s recent past.
London’s problems are real. Entain’s removal from the FTSE 100 and Flutter’s move away from its London primary listing are evidence of that. But Flutter’s experience in New York shows that changing the listing does not remove the pressure.
