M&A Archives

August 11, 2022

Entain to buy SuperSport, prepares for wave of Eastern Europe acquisitions

Online giant Entain has agreed to acquire a 75% stake in Croatian market leader SuperSport for €690m, in what it expects to be the first of many acquisitions in Central and Eastern Europe.

Entain will partner with Czech investment firm EMMA Capital to create a new venture named Entain CEE, in which Entain will own a 75% stake.

This new business – intended to make acquisitions in Central and Eastern Europe – will then acquire SuperSport, which is the largest betting and gaming brand in Croatia.

While Entain cited SuperSport’s 54% market share as one reason for doing the deal, it also suggested that the deal will just be the start of a flurry of M&A activity targeting Central and Eastern Europe.

The Entain board said the business would create “an exciting platform” in this region, led by SuperSport CEO Radim Haluza.

“The combination of Entain’s global scale, access to capital and content, EMMA’s regional knowledge and connectivity, alongside the expert local operational knowledge o..

July 20, 2022

Aspire prepares for a new era

Aspire Global has divested its B2C operations to become a focused B2B business which in turn becomes part of a formidable proposition now NeoGames has acquired the supplier. But that B2C heritage will be vital to ensuring it continues its rapid growth trajectory, says CEO Tsachi Maimon.

Tsachi Maimon was named chief executive of Aspire Global in 2013. At that time the business brought in about €25m (£21.3m) annually. Eight years later, it posted revenue of €213.3m for 2021.

When Maimon joined, he oversaw a B2C business which contributed the bulk of revenue. By the end of 2021, the company had sold off all its consumer-facing operations, which were snapped up by Esports Technologies in a €65.5m deal.

On 17 June, Aspire was then acquired by an even larger entity, with ilottery specialist NeoGames completing a public offer to take charge of the company for €402.3m.

This, Maimon says, is the result of “a series of carefully considered business decisions” that has ultimately taken it..

July 8, 2022

Entain shares slide amid concerns online slowdown continues into 2023

Entain’s share price dropped by more than 10% this morning, amid concerns its slowing online performance may continue through the rest of the year and beyond, before a rebound late in the day.

The business reported an 18% year-on-year increase in net gaming revenue for the first half of the year.

However, online revenue was down 7% year-on-year.

Entain said this was due to a weaker macroeconomic environment, leading to customers spending on average 5% less during the period than they had the year before.

“As a business, we are relatively resilient to cyclical macroeconomic effects,” chief executive Jette Nygaard-Andersen said. “However, no business is completely immune.

“We’ve seen some moderation in the rate of spend by customers, resulting in lower underlying growth across many of our markets versus our expectations earlier in the year.”

Chief financial officer Rob Wood noted that online revenue was “ultimately behind our expectations from earlier in the year, due to a couple ..

July 1, 2022

888 completes £1.95bn acquisition of William Hill assets

Online operator 888 has completed its acquisition of William Hill’s non-US assets from Caesars for £1.95bn (€2.25bn/$2.35bn), and has announced the group’s new leadership team.

888 had initially agreed in September 2021 to acquire the non-US business of William Hill. This came soon after US operator Caesars acquired the entire William Hill business for approximately £2.90bn, with the intent to dispose of all but its US assets.

Originally, the purchase price for the deal was £2.2bn. However, 888 and Caesars agreed to reduce the purchase price to acquire the assets by £250m, with the cash portion of the deal now set at £584.9m instead of £834.9m.

This, it said, was due to a “change in the macro-economic and regulatory environment”, but at the time it also revealed that the William Hill business’ licence to operate in Great Britain was under review.

After receiving shareholder approval last month, the deal has now closed today.

“I am delighted to announce the completion of our trans..

July 1, 2022

GiG pens new deals in Portugal and Spain

Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) has signed two new agreements with operators in Spain and Portugal, supplying its platform services to both.

Under the deals, GiG subsidiary Sportnco will sign with Caravel Entertainment Limited in Portugal – which operates online casino brand Moosh – and an unnamed online operator in Spain.

GiG acquired Sportnco in April of this year, in a deal worth €51.3m (£43.2m/$56.7m).

Caravel will then use the Sportnco sportsbook for the moosh.pt website.

“We are very proud to sign this contract with Moosh, a new GiG customer in the demanding and attractive Portuguese market,” said Hervé Schlosser, managing director of Sportnco. “Moosh.pt has great ambitions domestically and there is no doubt that we are perfectly positioned to be able to respond positively to the new dynamics of this growing Portuguese operator.”

Martin Bengtsson, CEO at Moosh.pt, said that the deal will allow the operator to upgrade its sportsbook offering.

“It has been a long process to fin..

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Tag: M&A