Exclusive: Smart Gaming Group B2B division for sale
London-based live dealer specialist receives 10 approaches from large international suppliers and operators.
Live dealer specialist Smart Gaming Group has put its B2B division up for sale and has been approached by 10 of the industry’s largest suppliers and operators in gaming, eGaming Review can exclusively reveal.
eGR understands that the company, run by former Evolution Gaming CTO Darwyn Palenzuela, has taken the decision to focus solely on B2C and therefore split its B2C and B2B divisions. It is, however keen to licence back its technology and services to its B2C sites as part of any future deal. No exact valuation is known at this stage with discussions known to still be in the early stages.
Ten companies, including a number of large multinational operators and suppliers from Italy, the US, UK and Australia, are known to be considering making an official approach. eGR understands these offers will be submitted in the next two weeks.
Corporate advisory firm Ficom Leisure, that has a long history in advising international gaming clients on strategy and M&A, is known to have undertaken the mandate for the sale.
Founded in 2007 and based in London with an office Malta and employing around 100 staff, the Gambling Commission and LGA-licensed business is facing increasingly stiff competition in the live dealer space from the sector’s major players including Evolution Gaming, Playtech, Microgaming and more recently Net Entertainment.
Live casino is one of the most lucrative areas of online gaming and, as an increasing number of countries look to regulate, is opening the door to a new raft of potential clients such as land-based casinos and government monopolies that are moving online as a result of new legislation and that are desprate for online partnerships.
Growth in mobile has also seen a number of operators “ in the last year in particular “ integrate live casino to their gaming offerings. Earlier this month Betfred launched its mobile live dealer casino solution with software partner Playtech.
NetEnt has recently expanded into live casino, with Unibet and Comeon beta-launching with the offering and more agreements in the pipeline, with the existing offering set to be augmented with the launch of live-dealer blackjack in the middle of this year.
Speaking to eGR at the ICE exhibition earlier this month NetEnt CEO Per Eriksson said of the company’s new live casino product: “We know we are the second mover in this space but from that point of view we can see what mistakes others have made and are making.
“We have superior technology and a superior product including HD streaming that none of our competitors have. We have exclusive branding solutions and the use of blue screen technology which differentiates the product, while there is also plenty more scope to do lots of different things that we will soon announce.”