Unibet buys EurosportBet owner
Swedish operator will re-enter the French market with acquisition of Solfive for an initial £4.8m.
Unibet is preparing to re-enter the French market after agreeing a deal to acquire Solfive SAS for an initial consideration of £4.8m.
The deal, which also includes a net cash adjustment of £1.3m, will see the operator take control of 100% of shares in the company, while providing an additional £2m to enable the French company to settle a fixed debt.
Solfive has owned the EurosportBet and EurosportPoker brands since taking charge of SPS betting in April this year.
One month earlier EurosportBet’s UK-facing brand was closed by then-owner TF1, and since then its poker and sports betting offerings have operated solely as dot.fr sites.
While SPS Betting already holds an ARJEL licence, the deal itself is subject to ARJEL approval and as such is likely to be completed “around the end of 2011″, according to a statement from Unibet.
Although it holds a licence in France, Unibet was deterred from re-entering the market due to high tax rates and CEO Henrik Tjärnström was forced to defend zero revenues from the market last August before further delaying the company’s re-entry in March this year.
According to estimates from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the cost of obtaining a licence in France is believed to be close to 8.7m. Also, ARJEL’s most recent report noted that sports betting amounts wagered have dropped by 23% year-on-year.
However Unibet is not among those operators applying for the first wave of Spanish licences.
Solfive Group CEO Olivier Ou Ramdane said in a statement: “The extremely challenging terms and conditions for the French market make it very difficult for an independent operator to develop their business. We are delighted therefore to have this opportunity to work with Unibet, who have the experience, resources and brand legacy in France to succeed in this market in the long term”