Gaming Realms CEO Patrick Southon on why River iGaming was the ideal business partner

Gaming Realms last week sold a 70% stake in its UK online casino B2C business to Malta-based firm River iGaming plc for £23.1m.

The deal covers several brands including Pocket Fruity, Spin Genie, Britain’s Got Talent Games and X Factor Games, with Gaming Realms retaining a 30% stake in those businesses.

The two firms also agreed a five-year B2B platform and content deal, worth approximately £1m in annual revenue to Gaming Realms.

Below, group CEO Patrick Southon tells EGR more about the rationale behind the deal, and explains exactly who is behind the little-known River iGaming.

EGR Intel: What were your primary motivations for concluding this deal?

Patrick Southon (PS): We’ve chosen to sell 70% of our B2C business to allow us to focus on our licensing and B2B business. Even though the licensing arm of our business is very small at present, it’s a significant growth area for us at this stage.

For us there is a conflict of interest in being both a B2C operator while also being a licenser of content as well. So, what we are trying to do is deliver resources so that we can speed up growth in our licensing arm while also simplifying our messaging to the market and getting rid of any perceived conflicts of interest with our B2B partners. It’s a strategic move to simplify our offering. We are a small operator and as a result we can’t do everything but what we are trying to focus on is areas which have the potential to generate maximum profit.

EGR Intel: Who are River iGaming and why have you chosen them as a business partner?

PS: River iGaming are a new company who were only listed on the Oslo stock exchange last year. They are pursuing a strategy of investing in acquisitions in the gaming market, as they have done in the UK with Gaming Realms. As a part of the deal, a new business, River UK casino has been created which will be jointly owned with Gaming Realms.

River iGaming has an investment focused team and is backed by some prominent industry names, such as Morten Klein, the Chairman of Cherry AB. This deal will see a unique combination of UK market focused brands and experience fused with expertise in the Norwegian and wider Scandinavian market. They have operations in Malta and they are actively recruiting as the operations develop. That is important for us because our marketing team can very much become part of that growth story. Their business model also mirrors that of Gaming Innovation Group, which is a very successful business.

EGR Intel: You’ve chosen to sell 70% of your B2C business but retain the Slingo brand, what was the rationale there?

PS: Slingo is very much linked to our strategy of licensing, because we wanted to have a small site which we can launch games on and test how they go before rolling them out. In addition, it was more difficult to include Slingo and the Slingo brands as part of the deal because of the extensive links that it has to our other products.

EGR Intel: What’s next on the horizon for Gaming Realms?

PS: Obviously, we are primarily invested in growing our licensing business and are hoping to announce more licensing deals in the future. In addition, we have retained our social gaming business which we are hoping to do something with either commercially or strategically, so I think our activity over the coming months will be in these two areas.