The international gambling industry is enjoying rapid development, as it provides opportunities for collaboration and partnerships, as well as mergers to its entities. The most recent example of such major change came from Gambling.com Group which made its official entrance into the sports betting world with the purchase of Bookies.com, reserving its spot in the sector.
This move could easily be classified as a strategic one, as it results in the company making a statement in the industry and branching out to develop in a new sector. According to the official information issued regarding the purchase deal, Gambling.com Group has made a £2 million payment as a cash consideration in conjunction with the transfer of the assets. In addition to that part of the deal, there was also a deferred compensation of £4.5 million, which could be paid over the span of the next 12 months.
With this move, Gambling.com Group will not only acquire Bookies.com but it also now has the rights to oversee the management of Bookmakers.co.uk, as well as FootballScores.com and 76 other domain names in the sphere of sports wager and gambling. During the fourth quarter of 2017, these assets have generated over £600,000 of collective sales in the UK gambling field. However, this is not the first purchase deal for the company since the beginning of this year. As it could be recalled, towards the end of January Gambling.com finalized the acquisition of mobile performance marketing network which amounted to some £3 million.
Implications of the Move
Experts in the field suggest that this move is striving to provide the company with more paths for future development since prior to this purchase it has focused its operations on the online gambling offerings. Such entrance in the sports betting field will secure the company’s place among the entities offering a wide variety of gaming options, maintaining its current customers, as well as attracting new ones, interested in the world of sports wager. Bookies.com focuses on horse racing betting, as well as football odds.
Focusing on the UK gambling market, the network involves online casino and sports betting operators, which in turn provided Gambling.com Group with the chance to develop a new performance marketing business channel. Shortly after this move, it was also confirmed that the firm has welcomed new names among its workforce and they were appointed to leading positions. They are Susan Ball, who managed the Initial Public Offering of Unibet Group, as well as Pär Sundberg, who is the co-founder of one of Sweden’s providers of content marketing services, OTW. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Ball was a Non-Executive Director of Kambi Group, while Mr. Sundberg comes into the company straight from his position of Executive Chairman of the Brand New Content group. He is also Chairman of Näslund & Jonsson Import AB.
Upon their arrival at Gambling.com Group, they received leading positions in the management – Ms. Ball became the new leader of the audit committee, whereas Mr. Sundberg chaired the remuneration committee. With their introduction to the company, Gambling.com Group now has as many as three independent non-executive directors and this inevitably affected the company’s direction of development.
