SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Sportium, the sports betting unit of Grupo Cirsa, has reached an agreement with Spanish news publisher Unidad Editorial SA to take control of the Marca Apuestas (MarcaApuestas.es) sportsbook brand.
Marca Apuestas serves as the sports betting subsidiary of Marca (Marca.com), Spain’s highest-selling daily sports newspaper and highest coverage online news portal.
Spanish business news source Merca2.es reports that Sportium has taken ownership of ‘Unidad Editorial Juegos’, the registered business operating the Marca Apuestas brand.
Meanwhile, Spain business registry has notified that Sportium Chief Executive Alberto Eljarrat and CIRSA Digital Director Mikel Lopez de Torre have been incorporated as general secretaries of the business replacing Unidad Editorial executives Nicola Speroni and Stefania Bedogni.
Further ownership changes have seen Marca Apuestas’ DGOJ online gambling licence transferred to ‘Bet on Red Digital’, a new subsidiary formed by Sportium.
In 2012, Unidad Editorial launched the Marca Apuestas brand to coincide with the approval of Spain’s revised Gambling Act regime, regulating online gambling businesses.
However, after failing to match Unidad Editorial commercial expectations the Marca Apuestas brand was withdrawn, as Marca focused its publishing platform on serving Spanish sports betting’s new incumbents.
In 2016, following a revision of its market strategy, Unidad Editorial formed a new ‘Juegos’ subsidiary relaunching Marca Apuestas in partnership with Playtech Plc as Juegos’ lead igaming and sports betting platform provider.
The agreed arrangement between Unidad Editorial and Sportium did not disclose information with regards to the ownership of Marca’s La Liga and ACB Basketball fantasy sports games operated by the Juegos subsidiary.
