SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) has this morning announced that it has reached a binding agreement to acquire online gambling community AskGamblers.com from Catena Media Plc.
The buyout is agreed for a total consideration of €45m, with GiG acquiring the additional online casino assets of JohnSlots.com and NewCasinos.com, alongside “further smaller European domains”.
The €45m deal will be paid as a €20m upfront cash payment, with agreed settlements of €10m and €15m to be paid 12 and 24 months after closing.
The AskGamblers.com online gambling community will become an asset of GiG Media, the high-performance media division of the igaming technology group, led by MD Jonas Warrer.
“We are very pleased to welcome quality websites such as askgamblers.com into the business and look forward to integrating with the skilled teams that have built up the websites acquired,” Warrer remarked. “We want to be the leading casino affiliate in the industry, and this acquisition cements our position.”
The transaction statement detailed that the acquired inventory “generated revenue of €12.9m in the first nine months of 2022 with an EBITDA of €8.4m,” in which GiG expects to improve EBITDA margin “between 60-70% from the assets going forward”, whilst securing new assets “that generated around 53,000 FTDs during 2022”.
Dealmakers branded the acquisition as transformative for GiG’s Media continued diversification as “acquired websites are strong in markets that currently are non-core markets for GiG Media”.
CEO Richard Brown outlined: “GiG is extremely excited to take over the premium AskGamblers brand from Catena. Combining the assets with GiG’s media technology and operational capabilities, provides us with a great opportunity to expand our global reach and to deliver a path for the brand to continue with its strong evolution
“The expansion of our strategic position in conjunction with the deal structure gives the group another great blueprint for growth. We look forward to integrating the assets and current staff into Gaming Innovation Group.”
The sale of AskGamblers and further European domains see Catena complete a strategic objective to help advance its North American expansion, a corporate directive announced during H1 trading.
Catena CEO Michael Daly said: “Today’s agreement is a major step in our journey to focus the business on online sports betting and casino affiliation in high-growth, regulated markets in the Americas. I am confident that in GiG we have found a buyer that will provide a strong environment for AskGamblers and the other brands and their talented people to develop and grow.”
GiG will finance the initial consideration through a combination of own cash, a revolving credit facility (RCF) and a share issue.
Existing shareholders have committed to participate in the share issue and the RCF, securing sufficient financing to complete the transaction at closing.
