Isle of Man based group acquires Gamebookers

It appears that the owners of Betbug.com, the Isle of Man based Trident Gaming group has racked up another profitable acquisition this week with the purchase of leading European sportsbook Gamebookers for a cool US$ 43 million.

The purchase price is to be paid in a cash and shares financed by US$ 34.7 million in cash funded by convertible debt and the issuing of over 9.3 million shares in Trident Gaming and is equivalent to roughly eight times historic earnings.

Gamebookers is one of the strongest performers in the European sector, with a turnover of around Euro180 million. It was recently named the 33rd most influential firm in online gambling by eGaming Review and posted an annualised pre-tax profit of GBP 3.2 million based on the past six months trading.

New owner Trident is run by industry veterans Antony Novac and John O'Malia who founded the US-focused betting exchange firm Betbug, which was acquired by Trident in June this year.

O'Malia, Trident's chief executive, said the combination of the two betting platforms gave the firm a strong position in the global gaming market.

"BetBug is the only legal way to offer online sports betting in the US," he said. "By adding Gamebookers and its hugely successful sports book and three active European gaming licenses, the directors believe that Trident is uniquely well positioned for global success."

Trident is not affiliated with the two executives previous software business 1X Inc, although 1X Inc may provide some software support services to Trident for an interim period of 3-4 months.

Trident will now seek white label partners for both the Gamebookers and Betbug systems, according to O'Malia. "We expect to build on our current licensee base and rapidly expand our white label partnerships with major online gaming providers," he revealed.