Playtech Purchases 90 Percent of Best Gaming Technology
Playtech has continued diversifying its business portfolio by acquiring a 90 percent stake in Austria-based Best Gaming Technology for a fee of €138 million.
The deal was announced to the London Stock Exchange, where Playtech is listed, a fortnight ago, and revealed Best Gaming Technology’s Chief Executive and founder Armin Sageder retains the remaining 10 percent of the company, and will remain in his current role for at least three years after the deal is formally completed.
Best Gaming Technology (BGT) provides sports betting software for gaming and sports betting companies, and includes Ladbrokes, Paddy Power Betfair, and William Hill among its long list of clients.
BGT is best known for its proprietary software used in self-service betting terminals (SSBTs), which allows clients to take bets via a digital terminal, revolutionising the more traditional over-the-counter experience, and boasts of being able to generate more than twice the volume of rival SSBT providers.
In 2015, BGT generated revenue of €41.6 million, and pretax profit of €6 million.
Playtech’s Chief Executive, Mor Weizer, said of the deal: “BGT is the leading provider of sports betting software and solutions for gaming and sports betting operators in what is one of the fastest growing verticals of our industry. BGT offers the market’s most sophisticated retail sports solution which is also both modularised and flexible, allowing Playtech to quickly integrate with its own platform. As the only company that will offer FOBTs and SSBTs, all integrated with the world’s leading online platform and products, Playtech will realise the potential of a true omni-channel offering for the benefit of both consumers and operators.”
The acquisition of BGT should help enhance the Playtech ONE omni-channel product, which allows customers access to anytime-anywhere gaming across any product, device, and channel, all while using a single account and wallet.
Playtech has invested heavily in recent years, with purchases such as Aristocrat Lotteries for €10.5 million, the €208 million acquisition of TradeFX, a recruitment drive to create more than 300 jobs, and the launch of a sports betting app for the Apple Watch.
The Israeli company had to pull out of a £460 million deal to purchase contract-for-difference trading business Plus500, and a $105 million purchase of Ava Trade, after regulators opposed the ideal and refused to sanction it.
Playtech own the iPoker Network, the fifth-largest online poker network in the world, home to the likes of bet365, Betfair, Ladbrokes, NetBet, Paddy Power, Titanbet Poker, and William Hill’s online poker operations.
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