Entain reportedly eyeing Baltic gains with $1bn Olympic Entertainment bid

Entain is sizing up a potential $1bn move for Baltic-facing gambling operator Olympic Entertainment Group, according to a leading business media outlet. Bloomberg has cited multiple sources claiming the FTSE 100 operator is in initial discussions with Olympic, which has extensive land-based and online gambling operations across Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Italy. Olympic, which is listed on the Nasdaq Tallinn stock exchange, operates 114 casinos and 23 betting outlets. This includes 24 casinos in Estonia, 52 in Latvia, 17 in Lithuania, six in Slovakia, 14 in Italy and one in Malta. It owns the OlyBet and MaxBet brands and serves as the NBA’s official betting partner in a number of key markets, with basketball the number one sport in the Baltic region. Olympic employs more than 2,800 and generates annual turnover of more than $40m. It was bought by London-based private equity firm Novalpina Capital in March 2018 for €288.4m. However, in July, Novalpina was stripped of its management of the €1bn private equity fund by an investor vote, resulting in management of the firm’s portfolio being transferred to Berkeley Research Group. Rumoured terms of the prospective deal are understood to include an initial upfront fee to acquire the online business in Lithuania and Croatia, with the land-based assets placed under option for acquisition in 2023. This is also understood to include a liquidity injection into the land-based business, in return for a revised creditor structure being agreed. An additional earnout based on the company achieving certain financial targets is also understood to be in the works. Entain already has significant interests in the Baltics following its acquisition of Sweden-headquartered operator Enlabs in March following a protracted bidding process. Entain initially tabled a €250m bid for Enlabs in January, only to have its prospective acquisition be engulfed in a row between shareholders over the bid. The firm had a larger bid accepted, valuing the business at SEK56 per share. Entain has not commented on the rumoured Olympic bid at the time of publication of this article after being approached by EGR. In this morning’s trading on the London Stock Exchange, Entain’s share price remained flat at 1,912p.