GAN Bags Coolbet for $175 Million

GAN Limited, an online gaming software firm, has announced that it has completed the acquisition of iGaming operator, Vincent Group p.l.c. (Coolbet) for a total purchase price of $175.9 million in cash and stock, as adjusted pursuant to the share exchange agreement.

The deal, which received the unanimous backing of GAN shareholders, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021 following regulatory approval.

GAN first announced its plans to acquire Coolbert in November 2020. Coolbert had about 84,000 active customers at the end of the third quarter of 2020.

The acquisition will see the integration of Coolbet’s proprietary sports betting technology into GAN’s current B2B technology stack begin in earnest, with broad availability of an integrated offering for the US market anticipated to emerge no later than the third quarter of 2021.

GAN said the deal was expected to be immediately accretive.

In addition, the company announced that Jan Svendsen, founder of Coolbet, will continue to run operations of Coolbet’s Business-to-Consumer (B2C) iGaming operations, with a footprint in Northern Europe, Canada, and Latin America in real money iGaming and online sports betting, as well as advise on trading services to U.S. clients with technical integrations.

Best-in-class offerings

Dermot Smurfit, GAN CEO, said the completion of the Coolbet acquisition brought together two best-in-class offerings in the iGaming space, making a powerful combination by creating a fully-integrated offering, customizable for each client’s needs. 

“We have already started to welcome the Coolbet team of over 175 employees and engineering talent to our organization and expect the integration process to be seamless. Over the last few weeks, the GAN and Coolbet teams have spent significant time together outlining our exciting future and have grown even more confident in the numerous revenue synergies that we see across both platforms. We look forward to leveraging one of the most complete solutions in our industry both domestically and internationally, and believe our growth platform is well positioned to drive long-term shareholder value,” Smurfit said.

IPO and wish for sportsbook engine

GAN closed its IPO in May 2020 and since then, Smurfit said it had continued to enhance and perfect its internet gaming software-as-a-service solutions for the U.S. market. As a part of this growth strategy, GAN needed to add a sportsbook engine to round out its real money iGaming platform. 

Smurfit said: “The timing of the acquisition ideally positions GAN to leverage its growing customer base, as well as the momentum that sports legislation has seen with the election results in Maryland, Louisiana, South Dakota, and Tennessee.”

When GAN first announced the deal, it said Coolbet had achieved trailing-twelve-month revenue of €26 million ($31.54 million) and a 46 percent revenue CAGR from 2018 to 2020, making it one of the fastest growing European B2C iGaming operators.

Smurfit said: “From the onset of our IPO we have continued to enhance and perfect our internet gaming software-as-a-service solutions for the U.S. market. As a part of that growth strategy, we have been clear that we needed to add a best-in-class sportsbook engine to round out our real money iGaming platform, and we believe Coolbet is the perfect fit for both GAN and our customers.”

Furthermore, GAN hopes acquiring Coolbet will help it break into the U.S. B2C online gaming and sports betting markets. GAN already has a growing presence in the U.S. B2B market, as it offers its technological solutions to several physical casinos across the country.

More about Coolbet

Coolbet was launched in early 2016 in Northern Europe and later expanded into Latin America and Canada. Its user interface and proprietary platform will allow GAN to quickly introduce the sportsbook offering to land-based casino customers across the U.S. 

Furthermore, Smurfit said Coolbet was more than just the best sportsbook platform they had vetted during the process and  described it as having a well-established global business, a strong and loyal B2C customer base, and diversified revenue stream. 

Vincent Group p.l.c. is a Malta public limited company that operates an online gaming platform under the flagship brand, Coolbet. Coolbet’s proprietary platform was uniquely developed in-house, and offers online real-money gaming in sports, casino, poker and virtual e-sports. Coolbet currently has approximately 175 full-time equivalents, primarily based in Tallinn, Estonia, and a management team with extensive experience in the RMiG industry. 

The Company has gambling licenses in Estonia, Sweden and Malta.

Coolbet was awarded start-up of the year in 2017 by International Gaming Awards, World’s Best

Bookmaker in 2018 and 2019 by TIPS magazine, and mobile sports product of the year in 2019 and 2020 by the International Gaming Awards.

Revenue for the first nine months of 2020 was €18.6 million ($22.55 million), split approximately 50 percent in sports betting and the other 50% in casino and other.