Poll: Can Intertain become one of the egaming industry's biggest players?
Toronto-listed firm pursuing an aggressive M&A strategy after announcing its third acquisition, Vera&John, last week
Last week The Intertain Group announced it had agreed to acquire online casino firm Vera&John in a deal worth 89m, potentially paving the way for the creation a major new player in the egaming industry.
The Toronto-listed firm revealed on Friday it had entered into a non-binding letter of intent with Vera&John’s Malta-based parent company Dumarca Holdings in what will become the company’s third major acquisition of the year when the deal is completed.
In June Intertain bought Costa Bingo owner Mandalay Media for £60m following its acquisition of InterCasino owner CryptoLogic from Amaya Gaming earlier this year in a deal worth up to CA$70m.
And Intertain CEO John FitzGerald told eGaming Review in an exclusive interview last month that the firm would not shy away from additional M&A activity in the future.
“Off the back of the Amaya transaction, I think the investment community has woken up to the idea of online gaming and so access to capital might not have become easier, but there’s more people willing to talk and listen to our ideas,” he said.
“It’s allowing us to explore some larger transactions as well,” FitzGerald added.
The recent $4.9bn buyout of PokerStars and Full Tilt owner the Rational Group by Amaya Gaming has demonstrably proven to be an industry game changer, with the transaction quickly followed by other high-value mergers such as GTECH and International Game Technology (IGT) as well as Scientific Games’ deal for Bally Technologies.
So with a growing portfolio of gaming brands a healthy appetite for further M&A transactions, can Intertain mount a serious challenge to multi-brand gaming giants such as Amaya or Betsson AB, or is its aggressive M&A strategy doomed to fail?
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