Betsson establishes Malta-based subsidiary
Michael Bennett named CEO of Angler Gaming, which owns a company with a Curaçao licence.
Betsson has established a new Maltese-incorporated subsidiary to focus on the Swedish operator’s non-core markets.
Angler Gaming, which owns Curaçao-licensed company Starfish, is a fully-owned subsidiary of Betsson and will be headed up by Michael Bennett, who has served as a director of Paddy Power, GTECH G2 and RedBet.
Former Dragonara Casino CEO David Gray is chairman of the subsidiary, while Sarah Borg joined the board of directors on 1 April.
In a memorandum released this month, the Swedish operator explains that Angler will focus on a number of Betsson’s non-core markets, explaining: “Betsson has identified approximately 30 countries in South America, Africa and Europe which have varying potential but which are outside Betsson’s core markets, and on which markets Betsson currently is not active and will not be active on in the near future.”
It adds that “Existing customer databases pertaining to these markets are redundant within Betsson’s business” and reveals “The revenues for Betsson on these markets are currently negligible (less than 0.1 percent of Betsson’s total revenues), but the number of customers is not negligible (approximately 5 percent of Betsson’s total number of registered customers).” These databases have now been transferred to Starfish.
Betsson intends for shares in Angler Gaming to be listed on Swedish exchange AktieTorget, and has proposed to distribute Angler’s shares to Betsson shareholders at next month’s AGM provided this listing is completed. Betsson expects Angler to receive an AktieTorget listing on or about July 2012.
In December 2010 Betsson sold its Turkish database to B2B partner Realm Entertainment, another Malta-based company. The company has since completed its 60m acquisition of Nordic-facing operator Betsafe.