Exclusive: Dragonfish-Tsogo Sun South Africa tie safe after merger
888 business-to-business arm Dragonfish's deal with South African casino giant Tsogo Sun Gaming is not under threat from a US$2.7bn merger that will combine the South African gaming group with rival Gold Reef Resorts, EGRmagazine.com can confirm...
888 BUSINESS-to-business (B2B) arm Dragonfish’s deal with South African casino giant Tsogo Sun Gaming is not under threat from a US$2.7bn merger that will combine the South African gaming group with rival Gold Reef Resorts, EGRmagazine.com can confirm.
Tsogo Sun, which is owned by brewing giant SABMiller, will merge with rival South African gaming and hotels group Gold Reef Resorts to create one of the biggest listed gaming groups in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The former company today confirmed that the deal poses no threat to an earlier deal between Tsogo Sun and Dragonfish signed in September last year for Dragonfish to provide services for a new TSG online brand that plans to expand into poker, bingo and casino gaming when regulations allow.
Tsogo Sun chief financial officer Marcel von Aulock said the company would “absolutely” continue the tie post merger, and that “this deal will boost our offering from seven to 14 casinos so we and Dragonfish will benefit from a much bigger database of consumers to offer online products to.”
The merger between Tsogo Sun and Gold Reef will take a further six to nine months to obtain regulatory approval, while laws allowing online gaming will take “18 months to two years” to be passed, von Aulock predicted.
However the company will only launch sports betting “when there is more clarity on games [licences] because we see sportsbetting only as a pre-games market,” he said.
The merger deal will involve Gold Reef acquiring Tsogo’s entire issued share capital, to be funded by the issue of new Gold Reef shares. SABMiller will exchange its 49% stake in Tsogo Sun for a 39.7% holding in the new group, which will remain listed on the Johannesburg exchange.
In other South Africa news recently, Ladbrokes signed a 60:40 joint-venture with African casino group KaiRo to launch an online sportsbook targeting the South African market, following Victor Chandler, which will launch in South Africa on 1 March following earlier licence approval.
Dragonfish declined to comment.
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