Sportech to sell The Football Pools for nearly £100m
Sportingbet founder Mark Blandford's Burlywood Capital in negotiations to buy the business
Sportech has announced plans to sell The Football Pools to egaming-focused venture capital firm Burlywood Capital for nearly £100m.
Burlywood Capital, which is headed up by Sportingbet founder Mark Blandford and former Merrill Lynch executive Andrew Burnett, will acquire The Football Pools for a total cash consideration of £97.25m.
The investment firm plans to list the business as part of a new company on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) with former Sportingbet COO Ian Hogg to be appointed as chairman.
Earlier this year Hogg was reportedly lining up a consortium to buy The Football Pools business.
Current managing director of The Football Pools, Conleth Byrne, is to be CEO and finance director Carl Lynn the new CFO, while 888 chairman Brian Mattingley and Liz Catchpole will also become non-executive directors.
The proposed deal, funded through a combination of debt and equity, is subject to the necessary equity being raised and the approval of Sportech shareholders.
Sportech has been looking to offload the business for over year and turned down a bid of £75m from GVC Holdings in 2015 as it looked for a valuation closer to £100m.
At the back end of 2015, NetPlay TV announced it was in talks with Sportech over a potential acquisition of the business, but pulled the plug on the deal just weeks later.
The Football Pools business reported a 19% decline in revenues to £14m for the first half of the year, while EBITDA fell 3% to £7m.