Esports Entertainment completes Bethard acquisition

The group has upped its revenue guidance to as much as $105m following the completion of the deal for the Swedish business, which generated $31m in revenue in 2020.

The transaction, first announced in May, includes a €16m cash payment and a 12% net gaming revenue share for two years. In total, the deal is thought to be worth approximately $27m.

“This is another great addition for Esports Entertainment Group that substantially increases our revenue and available markets,” said Grant Johnson, chief executive of Esports Entertainment.

“We will gain two new gaming licenses from this transaction, including one in the strategically important Swedish market. With these additions, we’ll have a total of six tier one licenses globally.”

Bethard is based in Malta and licensed in both Sweden and Spain and Johnson said in May that these two licences would play an important part in his business’ continued growth.

The deal to acquire Bethard was announced soon after European football governing body Uefa announced an investigation into AC Milan star Zlatan Ibrahimović over an alleged ownership share of a betting operator. While it did not name the operator in question, Ibrahimović is a Bethard brand ambassador and reports in Sweden claimed his Unknown AB business owned a stake of Bethard.

Esports Entertainment has made a number of major acquisitions in the past year. These include acquiring Lucky Dino Gaming Limited – operator of Lucky Dino, Olaspill, Kalevala Kasino and Casino Jefe – in March of this year in a deal worth around $30m and SportNation and RedZone operator Argyll Entertainment in 2020.

In its financial results for the quarter ending 31 March, Esports Entertainment generated total revenue of $5.4m, after not generating revenue in the corresponding quarter of 2020. The business made a net loss of $12.4m for the quarter, up from a $6.3m net loss for the same period in 2020.