Betsson acquires Nordic Gaming Group

The news that Betsson acquires Nordic Gaming Group hit the market today, but is not really all that surprising. Nordic Gaming Group consisting of the brands Nordicbet, Triobet and Tobet. Betsson has been aggressive as of late, and Nordic Gaming Group has been for sale for a number of years. With this buy the Betsson group is further strengthening their position in the Nordic region, and also get a foot print further east, especially in the Baltic region, but also in Poland. It also shows Betssons commitment to further strenghtening their focus on the sportsbook as Nordic Gaming was known for a good betting product and derived over 50% of their revenues from this product.

Purchase details

The deal signed gives the Nordic Gaming Group an upfron payment of €60M. A further €5M are payable either as Betsson B-stock based on a historical ten day average in the Betsson share price or cash. An earn-out has also been included. Depending on the development in the acquired products the Nordic betting share holders may get up to €20M euro more. Betsson is free to choose if this payment is to be made in further stock or cash.

The deal has to be sanctioned by the relevant authorities, but this should go through no later by the end of Q2 2012.

Other

We do envision that Betsson will be able to squeeze out quite a bit of synergies from this deal. One example for you: As both providers have the same casino product and Betsson has an excellent relationship to NetEntertainment we wouldn't be surprised if this is one of the reasons the Betsson stock is trading up about 4.6% as we speak from the morning open.