Zeal Ventures invests in Circl Gaming
Zeal Group’s specialist venture division has put an undisclosed sum into the British start-up.
UK.- Zeal Group’s specialist ventures division of Zeal Ventures has made an investment in the British start-up Circl Gaming. The sum invested was not announced but Zeal said it would provide ongoing consultation on strategy, regulation, marketing and process optimisation.
Circl develops a real-time game for mobile that provides games during English Premier League football matches. The game focuses on micro-events such as goals, corners, free kicks and yellow cards, but the gaming experience is based on random chance. It was originally developed as a social game to be played as a competition among friends, but players can now play in larger “Circls” and interact with people across the UK.
Circl investment director Dirk Reiche said: “The development of the gaming industry has picked up speed in recent years and has produced numerous visionary technical innovations. This is crucial for our industry, as the future of the market is taking place online.
“For this reason, we look forward to working with Circl and mutually sharing ideas for an even more diverse gaming and entertainment experience in the future.”
Circl Gaming chief technology officer Mark Quinn added: “The partnership with Zeal is a huge step forward towards growing Circl internationally. The founding team are delighted to be working with Zeal Ventures.
“The expertise they bring from the lottery and gambling sector is going to be invaluable to us as we continue to scale Circl and bring great new products to the market. The support they will bring is not just financial, it will help with every pillar of our business.”
Earlier this month, London-listed Zeal Network announced that its co-founder Marc Peters has left his role on its supervisory board. Peters, who owns 4.46 per cent of Zeal’s stock, will be replaced by Kenneth Chan.
Chan, who is managing director of the London-based hedge fund manager, Working Capital, has been appointed to the position on an interim basis by the Hamburg Local Court until Zeal’s annual general meeting.
Zeal brokers tickets for state lotteries and charity lotteries in Germany via Lotto24 and Tipp24. Peters co-founded Zeal in 1999 and returned to the company as a member of the supervisory board in June 2019 after its acquisition of Tipp24, which had been spun off in 2012.
