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888 Holdings has sold its Latvian gaming properties of MrGreen.LV and WilliamHill.LV to Paf, as the LSE gambling group reduces the size of its European portfolio.
The gambling company of the Finnish Åland Islands, Paf announced that it had reached terms to acquire 888 Holding’s Latvian operations and associated licenses.
The transaction will see Paf become Latvia’s third-biggest online gambling operator, a market it has served since 2018.
“For Paf, this is a good long-term investment in the Latvian market. We have been operating there since 2018 and we aim to build a stable position in the market,” read a statement by Paf CEO Christer Fahlstedt.
The newly acquired 888 properties will initially continue under their current brand status, with no immediate noticeable differences for customers.
As such, Paf will bolster its long-term investment in Latvia in which it has committed to opening a new office in Riga, with over twenty employees set to join the firm.
The agreement between Paf and 888 was signed on 19 May, as Paf expects to take control of its new Latvian properties in June.
Fahlstedt detailed: “The gaming sites’ current customers will not notice any difference directly when we take over the business. For Paf, it also means that we will have a new office in Riga where more than twenty employees will become a part of Paf.”
In a separate statement issued by 888 this morning, it disclosed that it had secured €24m cash for the sale of its Latvian units, combined with further earn-out rewards of €4.3m.
2022 trading saw the 888 Latvia business generate net revenues of £9m alongside an EBITDA result of £2.5m.
Updating investors, 888 Chairman Lord Mendelsohn commented on the sale: “We continually review our asset base to ensure that we are only holding assets that both contribute to our long-term strategy and will maximise value for our shareholders.
“As a business, our relatively limited exposure in the Baltic region means that the region is not one of our core or growth markets where we prioritise our investments”.
