MGM China has inked a new branding agreement with its parent company MGM Resorts, for a period of up to 20 years and under an increased monthly license fee.
The current agreement ends on December 31st, 2025, with the new long-term agreement coming into effect on January 1st, 2026.
According to a company filing, the agreement is set to automatically extend if MGM China is granted another gaming concession in Macau after its current 10-year concession expires in 2032. The extension could run until December 31st of 2045.
The agreement details an increased monthly license fee, which rises from the current 1.75 percent (of MGM China’s adjusted consolidated net monthly revenue) to 3.5 percent. The group notes that ‘the fees will be subject to an annual cap determined by certain variables […] the most significant being business volumes of MGM China’.
MGM Resorts will receive ‘approximately 66.6 percent of the license fee’.
The license agreement grants MGM China ‘a revocable, non-assignable and non- transferable sublicense to use the Subject Marks owned by MGM Head Licensor in connection with the marketing and operation of the MGM China Group’s casino, resort, and hospitality businesses at any legally permissible location within the Territory’.
The group further noted that ‘In addition to any expansion of MGM Macau and MGM Cotai, any future resort, casino, and hospitality projects or sites that the MGM China Group may develop in the Territory will use the Subject Marks’.
The group notes that the historical license fees paid under previous agreements amounted to $55.18 million in 2023, $70.39 million in 2024 and $56.43 million in the first nine months of 2025.
An annual cap of $188.3 million has been set for FY26, with the group to thereafter set annual caps yearly.
MGM Resorts indicated in a release that the move ‘secures an important right for MGM China as the MGM brand has served it well, which is reflected in the significant gains in market share and increased profitability since the end of the pandemic,’ pointing to a pre-pandemic market share of 9 percent, which as of the end of 3Q25 was ‘approximately 16 percent’.
The extension of the agreement from three years to 20 years also ‘protects MGM China’s shareholders by securing its most important intangible asset after the concession itself and provides MGM Resorts with fair compensation for the use of its industry leading brand’.
