Entain reported to be pursuing Olympic Entertainment
The British gambling company Entain is reported to have offered more than $1bn in cash for Estonian gambling operator Olympic Entertainment.
UK.- Entain Plc is reported to be pursuing a possible acquisition of Estonia’s Olympic Entertainment Group, one of the largest gambling companies in the Baltic region. According to Bloomberg, it’s made an all-cash offer worth more than $1bn for the Lithuanian and Croatian part of the business with an option to buy the rest in 2023.
With 2,200 employees in six countries, Olympic Entertainment Group runs both land-based casinos and online gambling sites across the Baltics and elsewhere. It has a portfolio of more than 100 land-based casinos, including the region’s largest, the Olympic Voodoo Casino in Latvia’s capital of Riga. It’s also carved out a presence in Slovakia, Italy, Romania and Croatia.
As of the end of last year, it had 23 land-based casinos in Estonia, 52 in Latvia, 17 in Lithuania, 14 in Italy, 4 in Slovakia and 1 in Malta. It also runs the online gambling brands OlyBet and MaxBet. It’s the official betting partner of the US National Basketball Association in several markets.
Olympic Entertainment Group: current owners
The company currently belongs to London-based private equity firm Novalpina Capital, which bought it in 2018 for around €288m. However, Novalpina, which also owns NSO Group, the developer behind the controversial Pegasus spyware tool, has collapsed following a battle between its three founders.
Management of its remaining holdings has been passed to Berkeley Research Group. Its other remaining holdings include the French pharmaceutical company Laboratoire XO and a debt portfolio. It’s said that a sale to Entain would be favourable for Novalpina investors to allow them to recover their investment with a profit.
Entain’s approach
According to reports, Entain is proposing an upfront payment for Olympic’s online business and operations in Lithuania and Croatia, plus an additional performance-based earnout in early 2023. It also wants an option to buy the rest of Olympic’s operations elsewhere in early 2023.
It would inject liquidity into those divisions before buying the assets in return for concessions from bondholders including an extension of the debt maturity.
Entain bought the Sweden-based Baltics-facing gaming company Enlabs AB and could benefit from cost savings if it gains another deal in the region. Entain itself was recently subject to a takeover approach from US sports betting giant DraftKings, however DraftKings decided against making a firm offer.
There’s no certainty that Entain’s approach to Olympic Entertainment will result in a transaction.
