SBC News Unibet confirms €59 million iGame acquisition

Unibet confirms €59 million iGame acquisition

unibet
Henrik Tjärnström

Further news of amalgamation reaches the online gambling industry this August as European sports betting operator Unibet Plc today confirmed its agreement to acquire Malta based operator iGame Holding Plc. 

Issuing a corporate statement detailing its intent, Unibet has placed a sum of €59 million (£41 million) cash for the complete acquisition of iGame services and its subsidiaries portfolio (http://igamegroup.com/#products)

Earn-out payments may be payable based on iGame’s results for the period up to 30 June 2016. The earn-out payment is calculated on a multiple of 6.2 times EBITDA up to a cap of EUR 20 million including an element for over-performance.

In the opening six months of 2015, iGame recorded group revenues of €13.7 million (£9.6 million) combined with an H1 2015 EBITDA of €4.7 million (£3.3 million). The operator further highlighted that it reached over 75,000 active customers during the period.

The acquisition of iGame will look to bolster Unibet’s position as the leading operator for the Nordic betting markets. During 2014 Unibet Plc stated that company governance was eyeing potential industry targets for market expansion. In July Unibet confirmed the acquisition of UK Bookmaker Stan James’ online betting division for £19 million, as the operator looked to extent its UK market services.

Commenting on the agreement Henrik Tjärnström, CEO Unibet stated

“The iGame brands are well known in their local markets and we see a lot of potential by combining our bigger scale, mobile, cross channel and product expertise with their local focus. As the majority of the iGame revenues comes from Casino, our joint plan is to keep a number of these brands as a complement to our existing brands, Unibet and Maria.”

Tommi Maijala, CEO of iGame says, “We are very happy to be joining the Unibet Group. While Unibet is larger than iGame, we share the same passion for serving our customers and improving the operations every day. I have great comfort and trust in the long-term strategy of Unibet and highly respect all the valuable work Unibet has done for the gaming industry. Through this deal our customers will quickly see the benefits from our ability to improve the product offering. Our ability to accelerate the growth and development of the business will also provide new opportunities for our great team”

Unibet governance informed that the current management team of iGame, under the leadership of CEO Tommi Maijala, will remain with the business and are subject to retention arrangements to deliver the business plan during the next three years.

 

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