Cherry sells three casino sites to Betsson
Initial price for SverigeAutomaten, NorgesAutomaten ond DanmarksAutomaten is £23m.
Swedish operator Cherryföretagen has agreed to sell three of its casino sites to Betsson for an initial SEK225m (£23m), while simultaneously acquiring the CherryCasino.com business from the Stockholm-listed operator.
The three online slots domains acquired by Betsson “ SverigeAutomaten, NorgesAutomaten ond DanmarksAutomaten “ came into Cherry’s possession in 2010 following its acquisition of Coys for an initial SEK50m plus results-based payments with the trio contributing SEK168.2m in revenues last year.
CherryCasino, which Cherry has acquired for SEK1m from Betsson, generated SEK1.5m last year. It came under the Betsson umbrella in 2009 when the operator’s parent company Cherry Group split into three parts: Cherry for offline, Betsson for online operations and Net Entertainment for software development.
Cherry launched its own online arm, PlayCherry, in 2008. This division secured a Schleswig-Holstein licence last month and also launched the EuroSlots.com site under a Maltese licence, while earlier this month it signed a distribution deal with Yggdrasil Gaming for RNG lottery titles.
The acquisition is one of several agreed by Betsson over the course of the last two years with the Malta licensee acquiring Nordic Gaming Group for 65m last April and Betsafe in 2011 for up to 60m.
Cherry CEO Emil Sunvinsson described the sale as “A fresh start for Cherry’s online businesses, where upcoming growth will be created from our own platform and where we are able to control the customers, the products and the offering.
“Further on, an own platform represents an opportunity to reach higher margins with increased volumes,” he added.
Sunvinsson predicted that Cherry would report negative Q3 margins from its egaming arm due to “An offensive marketing strategy,” however he anticipates “significant revenue growth” following the 11% year-on-year growth recorded in the six months ended 30 June 2012.