Kambi makes investment in virtual sports provider

Agreement with Virtus Sports will enable Kambi to offer a high-quality and complementary virtual sports betting product to operators.

UK.- Kambi Group plc has made a strategic investment in gaming start-up Virtus Sports, an agreement which will enable Kambi to offer a high-quality virtual sports product to its growing customer base. The deal has seen Kambi take just over a 25% stake in Virtus Sports, with the £500,000 (€565,000) investment paid in full from Kambi’s net cash, which as of 31 December 2017 was €26.9m.

Founded in 2014 and with offices in Malta and the UK, privately-held Virtus Sports delivers betting opportunities across a wide range of virtual sports, including football, horseracing, greyhounds and motor sport. As part of its investment, Kambi will integrate Virtus Sports’ 3D virtual sports product into the Kambi Sportsbook platform, in turn making it available to Kambi’s network of operators.

Kambi believes Virtus Sports’ high-quality virtual sports portfolio will complement its current offering and provide its customers with further opportunities to engage with players. Developed for online and retail channels, the games are fully customisable so operators can, among other options, incorporate their own branding, modify game content and adjust pay out margins.

Kambi chief executive, Kristian Nylen, said: “Despite being in its early stages of development, Virtus Sports has shown an ability to produce high-quality and engaging virtual sports games.

“Through this investment, not only will Kambi close a product gap by integrating the games into the Kambi Sportsbook, but we will also support Virtus Sports’ ongoing product development and sales to the wider market,” he added.

Virtus Games founder and CEO, Andrea Brecevich, commented: “We are delighted the management team at Kambi has recognised the potential of the Virtus Sports’ business and the high-quality production of our games.

“We are very excited about our games being made available to the Kambi network and look forward to releasing additional sports and other product enhancements very soon,” Brecevich added.