Juroszek family becomes largest shareholder in Gaming Innovation Group
Polish family connected with STS claims Malta-based firm is “undervalued” as it moves to take significant position via its three investment vehicles
The Juroszek family has become the largest shareholder in Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) following a recent acquisition of 1,324,145 shares.
The share purchases via the family’s three investment firms, MJ Investments, Betplay Capital and Juroszek Holdings, means they now own a total of 14,285,614 GiG shares, equating to 11.08% of the company.
STS CEO Mateusz Juroszek’s investment firm MJ Investments owns 5,217,606 shares while Betplay Capital, which is owned by the Juroszek family, including Mateusz, his brother Tomasz and his father Zbigniew, holds 4,832,342 shares.
Finally, Juroszek Holdings is an investment firm owned by Zbigniew. The senior Juroszek is also the CEO of property developer ATAL.
The family began ramping up their investment in the Malta-headquartered firm on 31 May, when Tomasz Juroszek purchased 400,000 shares at a price of SEK27 (£1.95) per share.
Via a subsequent eight separate share purchases, led by Tomasz, through to 3 July, the Polish family significantly strengthened its hand at the firm.
Tomasz became a board member at GiG at the end of May after being put forward by Betplay, and he has since disclosed to EGR that his family played a key role in providing the capital needed to fund GiG’s move for AskGamblers.
Explaining the rationale behind becoming GiG’s largest shareholder, Mateusz Juroszek said analyst expectations around future financial performance and strong media and sports betting arms made it a simple decision.
The STS CEO added: “GiG is one of the most attractive and interesting igaming companies on the public market.
“In our opinion, GiG is undervalued and has great potential. We, as a family, want to be long-term investors. Our goal is to support the business and its growth. As a family, we have been involved in the igaming industry for over 20 years, and our aim is to extend our engagement in GiG’s shareholder structure. This is why we have recently finalised a number of such transactions.
“We see current valuation as a reason to increase our involvement in GiG, especially when the analysts and their predictions assume an EBITDA growth up to 70% year on year (YoY) and revenue approximately up to 50% YoY,” Juroszek concluded.
In Q1 2023, the board of GiG announced that the firm would be undergoing a strategic review with the intention of splitting GiG into two segments, media services and platform and sportsbook.
On the two divisions, Juroszek commented: “When it comes to the media part of GiG’s business, the revenues have grown tremendously recently. It comes from multiple and well-diversified markets. The company also acquired a number of entities and secured a list of crucial partnerships.
“GiG [is] also focused into the Americas, and I believe that is key for future growth. We are also very happy with the acquisition of AskGamblers, and we can see great work done by the GiG Media team to turn that business around.
“The second part of the business is developing very well, too. It is a number one platform when it comes to market access with 40+ secured licences.”
The Juroszek family were the principal shareholders of Polish bookmaker STS before a deal was struck with Entain in June for the family to sell its shares in the firm to the operator.
Following the deal, Mateusz Juroszek will remain in his post of STS CEO.