M&A: Light & Wonder completes Grover purchase, Sega Sammy-GAN deal close

Light & Wonder has completed its acquisition of Grover Gaming’s charitable gaming assets, while GAN has revealed its pending takeover by Sega Sammy is on track to close by next week.

In February, Light & Wonder struck a deal to purchase certain assets from Grover for $850 million (€755 million). This was in addition to a four-year revenue-based earn-out of up to $200 million cash.

Light & Wonder has now completed the deal. It said it will operate the business with a combination of Grover employees and its own staff.

Grover Charitable Gaming has an installed base of over 10,000 leased electronic pull-tab units across five US states: Nevada, Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky and New Hampshire. For the year to 31 December 2024, it reported $135 million in revenue and $111 million in adjusted EBITDA.

“Grover Gaming has established itself as a leader in the fast-growing charitable gaming space,” Light & Wonder President and CEO Matt Wilson said. “Bringing their assets and expertise into our ecosystem aligns perfectly with our strategy to expand into complementary regulated markets.”

Brian Brown, founder of Grover, will lead the new Grover Gaming division within Light & Wonder as CEO. He said: “Joining Light & Wonder marks an exciting new chapter for the charitable gaming business.

“We’re proud of what we’ve built in the charitable gaming space. We see tremendous opportunity to grow even further as part of Light & Wonder.”

Sega Sammy closing in on GAN purchase

Meanwhile, in other M&A news, Sega Sammy is set to finalise its acquisition of GAN next week, with regulatory approvals almost complete.

Sega Sammy agreed to buy GAN for approximately $107.6m in November 2023. Initially, it was hoped the purchase would be finalised before the end of 2024, but this was pushed back to Q2 of this year.

The restated end date for the merger was set at 31 May. However, with regulatory approvals near completion, the two parties expect to finalise the merger by 27 May.

Should the deal complete, GAN will merge with Sega Sammy Creation, a subsidiary of Sega Sammy. The entity primarily focuses on land-based casino operators.

GAN will also cease to be a publicly traded company. All ordinary shares will be delisted from the Nasdaq Capital Market and deregistered.

In July last year, Sega Sammy also purchased online game creator Stakelogic for $143.2m.