Sightline Payments Becomes a FinTech Unicorn After Latest Funding

A unicorn may be a mythical horse-like creature to most, but, in the business world, it’s anything but fake. A unicorn is a privately-owned company that has been valued at more than $1 billion and, according to financial analysts, there are only 700 such companies around the world. Sightline Payments, the payments solutions provider that works hand-in-hand with the gaming industry, is now part of that exclusive group.

Sightline Payments Becomes FinTech Unicorn

Sightline has been in the news a lot lately, bringing its cashless gaming payment solutions to a number of casinos. Among its list of partnerships is Resorts World Las Vegas (RWLV), which is targeting a completely cashless gaming floor. Deals like these are the reason Sightline has continued to capture attention, as well as investments. It recently completed a new funding round that saw it take in $244 million, pushing its valuation above $1 billion.

With that, Sightline officially became a FinTech unicorn. It also reportedly became the first company based out of Nevada to have ever received the title, although there is no commemorative plaque or trophy that accompanies it. According to co-founder and Executive VP Omer Sattar, in a phone interview with CDC Gaming Reports, “I’ve always believed if you deliver the right product that makes sense and consumers want to use it, and most importantly it actually solves an issue for our industry, it fixes something that is broken, the valuation will come. It’s like you were told when you were a kid: do something right and everything else will come along with it.”

Sightline Continues to Steal the Funding Spotlight

This past June, Sightline acquired JOINGO, the developer of a mobile casino, just one of its many strategic moves this year to bolster its position and gain ground in the gaming space. This and the new tie-up with RWLV gave investors a lot of optimism, with the company finding $100 million in backing in April. The US gaming landscape is changing rapidly, with online casinos and sports betting taking center stage. Even Nevada is reportedly exploring the possibility of breaking into the iGaming space, something that would have never been considered three years ago.

Cannae Holdings, an NYSE-traded holding company, likes what it sees with Sightline and participated in the latest funding round. The company’s chairman, William P. Foley, views the company’s groundbreaking technology, which he saw in action at RWLV, as a game-changer for payments everywhere and has become “more bullish than ever” on Sightline’s future. He believes it is leading the charge with the digital transformation taking place in the gaming and entertainment spaces in North America, and expects “tremendous growth” out of the company.

Sightline expects to only get better moving forward. Part of the money collected during the funding round will be used for research and development, while another portion will go toward technological investments. Sattar adds, “Our goal is to look in the outside world, outside of gaming and around the world for technologies that the really smart people in the world are doing and building and have deployed. And then thinking about how do we bring it back into gaming. So, it’s all about driving innovation through product and technology.”