AsianLogic finalises 12Bet buy date
Kan Tang, CEO of Asian Logic says deal will be done in January and does not rule out re-listing the enlarged group.
Asian Logic will finalise its deal to acquire 12Bet by January next year and is not ruling out re-listing following its withdrawal from AIM last May, the new CEO of the enlarged group and current CEO of AsianLogic has told eGaming Review.
“[The acquisition] will definitely happen by January next year,” Kan Tang said today. “We’re still in the process of completing the paperwork, the deal will go through but we need to make sure the employees are aware of everything that’s happening.”
Earlier this month eGaming Review revealed the news that Asian Logic, owners of the Asian Poker Tour, had agreed terms to acquire sports betting specialists 12Bet for an undisclosed sum and merge both businesses.
“This is a very exciting deal for both of us. 12Bet has very good exposure in Europe [sponsorship of snooker’s UK Championship alongside its one-year sponsorship of snooker’s World Open]. This way we can penetrate European markets more in the future,” he said. 12Bet also sponsors Sevilla FC in Spain and operates betting partnerships with English Premier League football teams Newcastle, WBA and Birmingham City.
Tang said the addition of 12Bet to the AsianLogic portfolio would “definitely” put the newly enlarged group in the top three in Asia. “We believe we will have the strength to go into the European marketplace, not in the UK, France or Italy but in second tier markets such as Germany and Spain where there is less competition and where we can make more of a difference,” he said. “12Bet has made significant ground in Germany and Spain.”
“The management and the people there are very sports focuses and this will help us grow and diversify as we [AsianLogic] have been very focused on casino, poker and P2P,” Tang said.
“We will form a new holding company once the new corporate structures are in place. Merging two businesses together is a very complicated process. We’ll keep both businesses running individually and slowly bring them together.
“Both are doing very well, we don’t want to kill the momentum on that front. The best way to work together at present is to share our knowledge base and to grow both brands.
“We both use Playtech so there will be no platform change there. We do, however, have different back office systems so there will need to be some changes made in those departments [CRM and infrastructure],” he added.