LeoVegas acquires casino brand Royal Panda

LeoVegas AB has acquired online casino brand Royal Panda for €60m as the Stockholm-listed looks to ramp up its presence in the UK online gaming market.

An additional earn-out payment of €60m will be paid to Royal Panda depending on whether the firm hits its financial target of €50m in NGR in the next 12 months.

The acquisition is part of LeoVegas’ strategy to strengthen its position in the UK, with the market accounting for 50% of Royal Panda’s revenues in Q3 2017.

“With the help of the strong symbolic value in the panda, the company has built a premium brand among gamers, and we will complement LeoVegas with Royal Panda,” LeoVegas CEO Gustaf Hagman said.

“This gives us two great brands with global appeal, which makes the scalability in the continued growth strong while strengthening our position in the UK.”

Royal Panda, who were advised on the transaction by Oakvale Capital, operates an in-house casino platform and recently launched a BetConstruct sportsbook. The company has 60 employees working at its headquarters in Malta.

LeoVegas obtained an overall debt financing of €100m for the purchase of Royal Panda, and, Hagman says, for future acquisitions.

The operator adjusted its short-term financial targets to account for the purchase which will be completed by December 2017.

The trasnsaction is only LeoVegas’ second acquisition following its M&A debut earlier this year as part of a €6m deal to acquire Italy-facing Winga from Paf.

Elsewhere, the firm carried out a senior management restructure with co-founder Robin Ramm-Ericson taking the role of managing director for investment arm LeoVentures.

A new chief product officer role has been added to the management team and will be carried out by former head of product Jarl Moden, while the recruitment process for a permanent figure takes place.

The operator this morning reported a 40% year-on-year rise in Q3 2017 revenues.