French group Mangas Gaming enters the Top 5 online sports betting players in Europe

The acquisition of all the operations of Expekt, a major online sports betting company, addressing primarily the Scandinavian and Northern European markets. It is also a major player in online poker.

It also acquired a controlling stake in Bet-at-home from its founders. Bet-at-home, a Frankfort listed company, is an online betting and gaming operator mainly present in Central and Eastern Europe. A public offer will be launched shortly to acquire the shares held by Bet-at-Home’s minority shareholders. Both transactions benefit from the full support of the management of the acquired companies.

With these acquisitions, Mangas Gaming enters the top 5 online sports betting operators in Europe, with gross gaming revenues amounting to around 200 million euros in 2009, over 4 million registered clients and a staff of about 500 people.

Present in more than 25 countries, the group now benefits from a balanced breakdown of its activities over continental Europe while maintaining a strong focus on local market expertise, and offers its services through websites in 24 different languages.

Mangas Gaming, managed by Isabelle Parize, plans to pursue its pan-European development in a fast-growing industry. Both transactions, which remain subject to customary regulatory approvals, will be financed through the existing resources of the company, which is co-controlled by Financiere Lov, Stephane Courbit’s patrimonial holding company and Societe des Bains de Mer (SBM).

Lazard acted as exclusive financial adviser to Mangas Gaming these transactions.