Evolution Gaming Acquire Big Time Gaming

[Blackjax]

This happened out of nowhere

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-evolution-big-time/swedens-evolution-gaming-to-buy-big-time-gaming-idUSKBN2BZ0NI

[cocopop3011]

40 minutes ago, Blackjax said:

This happened out of nowhere

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-evolution-big-time/swedens-evolution-gaming-to-buy-big-time-gaming-idUSKBN2BZ0NI

Can't believe you beat me to it  This was in my diary to announce in the forum tomorrow. Haha. 

I've split your post into a new topic,  I hope you don't mind.

[Blackjax]

I believe Evolution gaming overpaid to  be honest. €450 million  for a company that has barely 15 slots and a megaways license is way too much. Also it was reported they had a profit of only €29 million last year. 

[ValDes]

Even if there was any doubt who's the real Big Boy on the gambling software market, well, now it's all crystal clear...  

12 minutes ago, Blackjax said:

I believe Evolution Gaming overpaid to  be honest. €450 million  for a company that has barely 15 slots and a megaways license is way too much. Also it was reported they had a profit of only €29 million last year. 

Quite a deal actually IMHO considering this 'interesting data'... 

 

Quote

Big Time Gaming, whose game titles include Bonanza and Extra Chilli, had revenues of 33 million euros in 2020, and made an operating profit (EBITDA) of 29 million.

 

[Afi4wins]

Just goes to show how much more money Evolution Gaming is making as compared to all the other providers. 

[Blackjax]

13 minutes ago, Afi4wins said:

Just goes to show how much more money Evolution Gaming is making as compared to all the other providers. 

Very good point.

Looks like live gaming is more popular and profitable than slots. My assumption previously in terms of revenue was lottery, Sports betting, slots and  live casino but now lottery, live casino, sports betting and slots. I might be wrong.

 

[ValDes]

Sports betting, Live Games, etc etc etc .... and somewhere at the back of the list comes Slots.

[Blackjax]

Just now, ValDes said:

Sports betting, Live games, etc etc etc .... and somewhere at the back of the list comes slots.

No way sports betting is number 1 @ValDes

Lottery is number 1 because its legalized in almost all countries and its a great form of revenue for a state/country.

[pinnit2015]

I think whatever they paid for them will be what they're worth  Evolutions's share price has sky rocketed in recent years so they obviously know what they're doing  

In fact, Slots are increasing their revenue grab, certainly in the UK: recentish report from the UKGC: betting will include the gaming machines at the bookies so you'd need to split it out

More money is spent betting on the Dogs, than footy in the uk, which is surprising maybe for some. 

 

 

[pinnit2015]

Don't know what happened to the table games data....

 

 

[pinnit2015]

Regardless, look at the jump of slots revenues in the UK online industry; either the datas wrong or it's simply a massive jump

[Blackjax]

48 minutes ago, pinnit2015 said:

Regardless, look at the jump of slots revenues in the UK online industry; either the datas wrong or it's simply a massive jump

There has been a surge in slots mainly because of lots of new casinos and slot providers. Previously the market was just ruled by playtech, microgamming and novomatics in some parts. Casinos that can I remember from those times are bet365, betfair, betway and skyvegas. The new casinos really gave a lot of choice and booooom!!!

[cocopop3011]

8 hours ago, Blackjax said:

I believe Evolution Gaming overpaid to  be honest. €450 million  for a company that has barely 15 slots and a megaways license is way too much. Also it was reported they had a profit of only €29 million last year. 

Yep it was one hell of a deal! I real think Evolution Gaming  have come out of the shadows last couple of years, really pulled out the big guns. 

[ValDes]

17 hours ago, Blackjax said:

No way sports betting is number 1 @ValDes

Lottery is number 1 because its legalized in almost all countries and its a great form of revenue for a state/country.

Never considered lotteries as a real part of the modern iGaming industry tbh... Totally different business, model, operations, etc etc, that's why didn't comment it in my post re their share. 

Also, if you look carefully at the stats which our beloved Mr P was kind enough to post above, you will notice that betting (remote + non-remote) is the one having the biggest share of the UK market, but that's pretty much the same situation across most of the major gambling markets worldwide anyway. 

Moreover, keep in mind that a serious number of Operators outside UK are reporting activities throughout the different products they have (casino, live games, spots betting, keno, etc) as a combined result. 

Anyway, regardless the statistical shares of the different gambling products, I cannot agree more with Mr P that indeed, Evolution obviously know what they are doing! 

[ValDes]

10 hours ago, cocopop3011 said:

Yep it was one hell of a deal! I real think Evolution Gaming  have come out of the shadows last couple of years, really pulled out the big guns. 

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/EVO.ST/

Check their stock price stats for the last year... 

[pinnit2015]

Yeah, i wouldn't lump lotteries in with this when talking about sector share - if you look at casino accounts when they talk about the market share they have it's regarding other casino businesses, not state lotteries etc.

The margins BTG must be making re the licences must be pretty healthy - all the costs, development etc have all been incurred so when you grant them at a later date it is pure revenue with little associated costs. 

Large part of the valuation as well will be Goodwill....BTG have a name for themselves that's associated with particular games etc which will have been a big chunk of that valuation - it's not all just about the depth of your catalogue. 

Only thing will be that the MW licence will have a finite lifespan. 

[Blackjax]

3 minutes ago, ValDes said:

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/EVO.ST/

Check their stock price stats for the last year... 

Woah.... they went from Euro 33.4 to Euro138.7 per share in one year. That shows how the gambling industry surged in the pas 13 months. One thing for sure Coronavirus proved to be a boon for the gambling industry. I will take some time out to check stock prices of Netent, pragmatic, play ngo and other gambling stocks of the past year as well and try to post here.

[pinnit2015]

The big question is whether BTG will be allowed to continue as they are - sometimes when companies are bought out you hear the same old line: they're a successful business, we will let them operate with the same autonomy as before. What tends to happen is that it normally starts off like that...then suddenly the parent company (Evo) start to want to have their fingers in the pie a bit more, start inserting themselves more in the decision making, replace folk with their own folk at operation level and it goes downhill from there.

However, can work the opposite way; they're just another figure on their balance sheets etc and it's BAU but with maybe more money behind them, which can be a good thing. 

Time will tell - BTG have what looks like a HV super monster coming out (a proper HV one, not some of their previous releases that pretend to be) so i'd expect them not to change too much in the Short Term-Medium Term. 

[pinnit2015]

I think a large part of the rise of Evolutions price will be helped by their deals with the likes of Willy Hill and Unibet in the USA. 

If the USA market is ever fully opened up it'll be money not seen seen Scrooge McDuck's bath. 

[ValDes]

58 minutes ago, pinnit2015 said:

I think a large part of the rise of Evolutions price will be helped by their deals with the likes of Willy Hill and Unibet in the USA. 

If the USA market is ever fully opened up it'll be money not seen seen Scrooge McDuck's bath. 

Exactly! And IMHO, that's the main strategic point and logic behind all these really really really serious acquisitions of NetEnt, BTG, etc... As soon as the US market opens again for a regulated online gambling business (and that's the tendency with more and more new US states emerging on the iGaming map), man, those of the gaming companies who have already established there will kill it BIG TIME!  

[Blackjax]

Most of the slot provider companies are not listed on the stock market and are private.

But Netent is listed and its stock went from $7.5 to $18.6 in last one year. The most surprising thing about Netent that I learnt about them only today is that they are also owned by Evolution AB group which now has Btg. So it means Evolution group now has Red Tiger, NetEnt and BTG. Btw the annual revenue of Evolution group last year was $338 Million.

[pinnit2015]

Also, back in 2019 Netent paid 220million to buy Red Tiger as well

Netent has a weird site nowadays where they're also affiliates it seems? 

[pinnit2015]

Edit, see you mentioned RT; my bad

[Fiekie247]

5 hours ago, pinnit2015 said:

Also, back in 2019 NetEnt paid 220million to buy Red Tiger as well

Netent has a weird site nowadays where they're also affiliates it seems? 

Confusing as ***** - When I want to check out slots, the website is full of affiliate info...

[cocopop3011]

10 hours ago, pinnit2015 said:

Also, back in 2019 NetEnt paid 220million to buy Red Tiger as well

Netent has a weird site nowadays where they're also affiliates it seems? 

Yeah I noticed this too, a while back actually! Find it weird that they state 888 as their most recommended casino though!  I know they've been making an effort to get on top of things but still.