FSB accelerates growth strategy with £23m Clairvest Toronto backing

Industry sports betting and turnkey platform provider FSB Technology (FSB) has accelerated its enterprise strategy, having secured £23 million in working capital from Toronto TSX-listed private equity firm Clairvest Group Inc.

The growth equity investment sees Clairvest become the majority investor in FSB, as the technology firm seeks to expand its platform services across regulated markets to help industry incumbents meet new regulatory and scale demands.

TSX-listed Clairvest maintains a ’19-year track record’ in gaming/betting related investments. This March, the Toronto PE firm announced that it had secured an 8X return on its investment of Rivers Casino – an asset acquired by US racetrack operator Churchill Downs for $1.45 billion.

Clairvest added that – ‘subject to certain conditions’ – its FSB investment may be increased by up to £4 million.

“We are impressed with FSB’s leadership, technology platform and tremendous growth track record to date. Having spent over two years evaluating the sports betting space, we view FSB as a strong leader with a promising opportunity to expand into new regulated sports betting markets,” said Michael Wagman, President of Clairvest. “We are excited to back the Company’s co-founders and partner with proven and strongly aligned gaming entrepreneurs.”

Founded in 2007 by the enterprise team of David McDowell (CEO) and Sam Lawrence (CTO), FSB has established itself as a leading omni-channel platform supplier offering end-to-end sports betting and internet gaming solutions, including data and pricing feeds, customizable solutions and fully-managed trading services.

FSB clients include Dafabet, Jenningsbet, Fitzdares, Paddy Power Betfair and 138.com.

“Clairvest’s growth capital investment in FSB is an important milestone for our company,” said McDowell. “Beyond capital, Clairvest’s deep industry knowledge in the gaming space will be instrumental in supporting our team as we embark on an aggressive growth plan in our existing markets as well as new geographies.”