Launches and sign-ups 29 July 2015
Launches and sign-ups from the egaming industry in the last seven days (23 July 2015 to 29 July 2015)
Ladbrokes and Gala Coral agree terms on mega-merger
Two firms will combine to create new UK betting and gaming giant pending approval from competition authorities
Ladbrokes and Gala Coral have agreed terms on a transformational merger which will create a new egaming heavyweight called Ladbrokes Coral, the two firms announced last week.
Pending approval from both shareholders and the UK Competition and Markets Authority, the combined firm will have annual digital revenues of approximately £400m and a market cap of £2.3bn.
The two operators also confirmed reports yesterday that the enlarged business would be headed up by Ladbrokes CEO Jim Mullen with Gala Coral COO Andy Hornby to take on a similar position at Ladbrokes Coral.
According to the two firms, a combination will give the new entity the potential to drive faster online growth and extract greater value from a regulated international portfolio of Spain, Italy, Australia, and Belgium.
GVC lines up £1bn offer to acquire bwin.party
GVC Holdings is lining up an offer of approximately £1bn in a bid to overtake rival 888 in the race to acquire bwin.party.
The Sportingbet owner confirmed it has teamed up with private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management to work on an improve offer for bwin.party, upping its original offer of 110p per share to 122.5p, consisting of 25p in cash and the rest in stock.
The revised figure is significantly higher than the £898m deal accepted by bwin.party from 888 earlier this month, a price that was already lower than GVC’s original proposal of £906m.
Seven days in launches and sign-ups:
Ladbrokes launches mobile-first sportsbook platform
Ladbrokes has unveiled a new HTML5 sportsbook front end, which sees the operator use Mobenga’s mobile platform to provide customers with a seamless experience across all its digital channels.
The operator, which last week confirmed it planned to merge with UK rival Gala Coral, said the new website meant it was now able to provide “the quickest and easiest customer experience” across desktop, mobile and tablet.
“Customers expect a consistent approach and we’re providing it with a single platform,” Andrew Bagguley, Ladbrokes digital managing director, said.
Betfred launches cash-out in website upgrade
Betfred installed an in-house developed cash-out facility and unveiled its Chroma Sports-powered interactive horseracing cards as part of a major website update released last week.
The operator’s website was down for approximately 15 hours to enable improvements to be made, and the firm said the downtime would enable it to launch additional products over the next few weeks.
“We delighted to offer a cash-out facility that has been developed in-house,” a spokesperson for the firm told eGaming Review. “Cash-out is just one of many exciting developments that are about to be rolled-out,” the spokesperson added.
Gaming Realms acquires Slingo from RealNetworks
Gaming Realms has entered into a conditional agreement with RealNetworks to acquire its Slingo brand and a number of other assets for US$18m as it looks to expand into North America and the social casino sector, the company announced Friday.
The London-based firm will take control of RealNetworks’ GameHouse US and Canadian Game studios, its Backstage Technologies subsidiary, receive a licence to the GameHouse Promotion Network plus a number of domains including Sudoku.com and Mahjong.com.
The deal comprises a $10m cash payment plus two additional $4m payments 12 months and 24 months after completion, and has been funded by Gaming Realms raising £12.5m through the proposed placing of up to 50 million new ordinary shares in the company.
BlockEx launches whitelabel exchange
BlockEx, which aims to provide forex, financial betting and egaming operators with a turnkey digital currency exchange product, has partnered with Secure Trading as its payments processing partner.
The company recently launched Xstock.io offering trading of BTC, Startcoin, Horizon Coin and Monero Coin, and is planning the launch of a social trading skin later this summer.
“Secure Trading was really the only option for us when it came to payment processing,” said Adam Leonard CEO, of BlockEx. “The company’s status as an acquirer as well as a payment services provider was highly attractive to us, as were its simplistic on/off-boarding capabilities. The fact that it operates in all major currencies, which facilitates the trading of digital currency.”
“These are exciting times and to be partnering with such an innovative company from the start shows our commitment in the fin-tech space” said Jens Bader, CCO of Secure Trading. “These guys have a wealth of experience and are real experts in what they do, and that’s why we were keen to partner with them. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship.”