Unibet boss: Stan James deal makes us major UK player
Henrik Tjärnström says acquisition marks a "step-change in scale" as he eyes further M&A opportunities
Unibet’s £19m acquisition of Stan James will help propel the firm towards a market-leading position in the UK market, the operator’s CEO Henrik Tjärnström has told eGaming Review.
Speaking exclusively to eGR shortly after announcing the deal this morning, Tjärnström said the extra scale achieved by the deal would see Unibet close in on its target of achieving a top five position in the UK market.
“We have to aim high and this is clearly putting us on that path. I’m really confident that this is the right kind of scale and step-change in scale,” Tjärnström said.
Unibet first made a concerted push into the UK in mid-2013 but with work still to be done in terms of brand recognition, Unibet plans to continue to operate the Stan James brand for the medium-term at least.
The firms will initially each run on their own individual platforms, but Tjärnström said the company recognised the strength of the Stan James in the UK and would make a decision about its long-term plans in due course.
“We know that the Stan James brand name from a UK point of view is very strong and likely stronger than ours is today, so we’re pretty open-minded on that,” Tjärnström said.
“A decision will be made as soon as possible and although we have developed operational plans, we don’t want to jump to conclusions on those until we’ve done a proper analysis,” he added.
The deal will see the Stan James management team, including CEO Denis Kelly, remain in place.
Since 2012 Unibet has completed three acquisitions, including a 13.5m deal for rival Scandinavian operator Bet24 in 2012 and entry into the French and Australian online gambling markets with the acquisitions of Solfive SAS and Betchoice respectively.
And Tjärnström admitted the operator was still keeping a watchful eye on any new acquisition targets. “We get constant offers and opportunities and we have several that we’re working more or less actively on so we’ll see when we get to that position,” the CEO said.
“The benefit of being quite active in the market and of being one of the biggest operators is that we get a lot of proposals and our good organic growth rates allows us to be quite selective,” he added.