Betsson AB targeting Latin American growth with Inkabet acquisition

Swedish online casino operator Betsson AB has announced the signing of an agreement that is to see it strengthen its presence in Central and South America via the purchase of the iGaming brand at Inkabet.

The Stockholm-headquartered firm used an official Wednesday press release to declare that the arrangement being carried out by its SW Nordic Limited subsidiary is expected to close by the end of next month following its payment of an initial $25 million and the finalization of ‘certain restructuring activities’.

Terrific territory:

Betsson AB is already responsible for a plethora of online casino and sportsbetting domains including the likes of Betsafe.com, CasinoEuro.com and Guts.com and it described Latin America as ‘a strategically important region for the company’. The operator also proclaimed that buying Inkabet is destined to ‘strengthen its market position in the western region of South America’ by giving it a control over a business-to-consumer iGaming brand that already boasts a ‘strong presence’ in Peru.

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The acquisition of Inkabet represents the fourth such Latin American deal for Betsson AB following its earlier procurements of the ColBet and Suaposta iGaming brands for Colombia and Brazil respectively as well as its April purchase of a 50% stake in regional payment processing software development specialist JDP Tech Limited. The firm is furthermore currently in the process of trying to obtain an online gaming license for the Argentinian province of Buenos Aires and recently agreed to buy a 35% share of platform provider Strive Platform Limited ahead of its envisioned launch into the embryonic United States market.

Ancillary add-ons:

Betsson AB pronounced that the deal to buy Inkabet moreover contains a performance-related clause that could see it disburse as much as $4 million over the course of the next six months depending on ‘agreed revenue and earnings before interest and tax targets’. It went on to disclose that the contract will additionally involve the payment of $3 million in cash come end of next year followed by a further $2 million twelve months later.

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Pontus Lindwall serves as the Chief Executive Officer for Betsson AB and he used the press release to divulge that the full purchase price of up to $34 million is equivalent to 3.8 times Inkabet’s earnings before interest and tax for the twelve months to the end of June. The boss likewise asserted that his firm intends to utilize the ‘attractive financial flexibility’ offered by its own revolving credit facility so as to amass the cash for this arrangement.

Read a statement from Lindwall…

“Through this transaction, Betsson AB is continuing to build market share in Latin America following the previous acquisitions of JDP Tech Limited, Suaposta and ColBet. This strengthens our position in a strategically important region where we have performed well and have big ambitions for the future.”