Jaxx sells lotto business after securing Schleswig-Holstein licence
Group changes name to mybet Holding SE following sale " also signs deal to sponsor newly-promoted Bundesliga side.
German operator JAXX SE has completed the sale of its lottery business to a group of private investors for 12.5m after the transaction fee was confirmed following extensive due diligence investigations, it has announced this morning.
JAXX’s intention to sell the division, which is comprised of its JAXX GmbH (Hamburg), JAXX GmbH (Lustenau), Vendo Spielsysteme GmbH, flux.com Telewette GmbH and JAXX UK Ltd subsidiaries, was first announced in January, with its Spanish lottery division DIGIDIS S.L. not included in the deal.
The JAXX domains, brand names and naming rights are also included and, as a result, JAXX SE will change its name to mybet Holding SE.
Revenues from the lottery division for the period ending May 1 2012 will be retained by JAXX, with the 12.5m acquisition cost reduced accordingly, a statement read. A fee of 8m will immediately be paid with a further 1m in the third quarter of this year. The remaining balance will be paid in the form of a fixed-interest loan granted to investors.
The decision to sell the lottery business was taken in order to allow it to focus on sports betting, casino and poker products, it said, and reflects the decline in lottery revenues in its core German market with amounts wagered on traditional lotteries down 8.2% year-on-year for the first three months of 2012.
The announcement follows last week’s news that JAXX had become one of the first three operators to be awarded a licence to offer online sports betting in the northern Land of Schleswig-Holstein, alongside Betfair and Die NordwestLotto Schleswig-Holstein, with casino and poker approval expected to be handed out in the coming weeks. Market research group MECN revealed that the German sports betting market is expected to grow by 200% by 2015 to 1.5bn in gross betting revenue, despite the other 15 Länder having had their State Treaty egaming proposals criticised by the European Commission in March.
Mybet yesterday also sealed a deal to sponsor football team SpVgg Greuther Fürth, which will play in the German Bundesliga for the first time next season. Under the terms of the deal mybet will be featured on stadium advertising banners, with Mattias Dahms, CEO of JAXX’s Schleswig-Holstein-based subsidiary adding: “In mybet, we have an excellent brand that we aim to continue bolstering through a measured approach to sponsorship and well-paced branding measures.
“Our partnership with the cloverleaf [Greuther Fürth’s team nickname] gives us the opportunity of a presence in the Bundesliga through an especially likeable club. With its attractive football and a young, motivated group of players, the team is bound to make its mark on the first division too,” Dahms said.