SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) has begun a strategic review of its business, which could see a separation of the company into two publicly traded enterprises.
The review will take place throughout the year, having been ‘initiated immediately’, with a focus on what strategic and operational objectives will need to be achieved for a split between the two respective divisions.
A split would be conducted by a distribution of the Innovation Labs Ltd subsidiary to GiG shareholders, dividing the GiG Media and Platform and Sportsbook divisions into separate businesses.
Richard Brown, CEO of GiG, said: “This is a very exciting time, both for the company and its employees but also for the shareholders of GiG. I strongly believe that a split has the potential to remove hurdles and unleash new possibilities for each business segment and that we can create two very successful companies.”
Post-separation, the Media Services company will include GiG’s lead generation arms, with a focus on generating online gambling leads through media buys and publishing.
The Platform and Sportsbook business would encompass the Nasdaq firm’s technical igaming platforms, front-end development and other managed services including player safety, customer operations and CRM/marketing.
Sportnco, the sports betting systems provider acquired by GiG in April last year which has since been leveraged for a greater foothold in the Spanish and Latin American markets, would continue to function under the Platform and Sportsbook entity.
Petter Nylander, Chairman of the GiG Board, added: “Each of our Platform and Media business has reached such a maturity where it makes perfect sense to evaluate a potential split.
“We are looking forward to initiate the review and see how we can maximise operational output and shareholder values.”
The final execution of the breakup will be dependent on shareholder approvals, whilst GiG’s rationale for the review is to examine how to ‘sharpen the focus for each business segment’ and ‘optimise growth opportunities’.
The firm believes that a split could produce two ‘industry leading’ companies with greater growth potential than its current business model, partly due to greater strategic and financial flexibility of operations.
As it stands, GiG is currently on course for strong trading going into 2023 under its current business model, having achieved Q4 2022 revenue of €26m – a 44% increase from the €18.1m achieved the previous year.
