NetPlayTV eyes post-PoC acquisitions
Chief executive Charles Butler aims to follow-up Vernons deal with larger-scale additions
NetPlayTV chief executive Charles Butler has told eGaming Review the company is positioning itself to take advantage of the soon-to-be consolidating UK market.
According to Butler, the looming UK Point of Consumption (PoC) tax and regulatory framework will result in a number of UK-facing operators either pulling out of the market or facing closure.
“We all have to be upfront with the fact that the industry is changing and if the PoC tax does come in, along with the regulation around that, it will change the dynamics of the UK industry,” Butler said.
“The market will look different in a couple of years and there will naturally be a period of consolidation and we want to position ourselves to be part of that consolidation play,” he added.
Butler told eGR that NetPlayTV, which in October acquired online gaming business Vernons from Sportech for around £3m, would be flexible in its consideration of M&A opportunities.
“We’d be looking at both UK and non-UK opportunities where it can give us access to another regulated market,” he said.
“Vernons was a small but easy acquisition to make and there’s probably an argument that we should be looking at some bigger opportunities “ our doors are open to all possibilities.”
The company, which also operates brands SuperCasino and Jackpot247, has also scoped out what cost efficiencies could be made in order to offset the expected tax.
Adamant that marketing spend would not be affected, Butler said he hadn’t ruled out closing one of its two overseas offices in Sofia or Guernsey.
“We have people in different locations and rather be drawn on what changes we will make at this stage, I can say we have certainly identified efficiencies in the fact we are running multiple locations at the moment across our products,” he said.
Earlier this week the company reported 2013 full-year profits at grown by more than 21% to £5.2m while revenues grew by 31% to £28.5m.