Zeal Networks cleared for German return

German lottery provider Zeal Networks will move its registered office from London back to Germany following the company’s acquisition of Lotto24.

A company representative told iGaming Business that the move would lead to some job losses from the company’s currently UK-based staff.

Following the acquisition of Lotto24, the company announced it would reduce the number of employees from the original 350 to 271 in the Group, which has already been communicated to the employees concerned. The job losses will be shared between the company's offices in the UK, Spain and Germany.

The company said there will be further cuts in the future, with the ultimate goal of reducing total headcount to 200 by mid-2020, a target it said it is confident of hitting.

The company’s Hamburg office — which will become Zeal’s registered office following the move — was already the company’s largest office, while the company did most of its business in Germany. With the Lotto24 takeover, the company plans to focus further on Germany and integrate the offices of the two businesses.

99.9% of votes from the company’s shareholders, representing 70.5 percent of the voting capital, were in favour of the move to Germany.

The company said it believes the cost synergies of integration should be around €45.6m in the first year and around €57m when the move is fully complete two years after the deal.

“With the decision to relocate our registered office, we can now take the next formal steps to complete both the business model change from the secondary lottery business to the brokerage business permitted in Germany and the relocation of our registered office before the end of October of this year, ” Dr. Helmut Becker, CEO of ZEAL Network SE, said.

“We would therefore like to thank our shareholders, who have once again supported us on our way to reunite with Lotto24.”