BETGENIUS ON THE BLOCK?

4 January 2008

Directors hope for GBP 60 million offers


Business Sale Report and other UK business media report that online gaming firm Betgenius has hired investment bank Arbuthnot Securities to undertake a strategic review of the business, with a GBP 60 million sale in mind.

Betgenius provides technological and data-driven solutions to the sports betting industry. The business offers services covering more than 15 000 betting markets a week, including odds fixtures and results from over 50 different sports in more than 90 countries.

Board members, led by m.d. Michael Hornung are the biggest shareholders in the business, which runs a site allowing punters to compare odds as well as providing services to bookmakers. According to Companies House filings, Hornung is the single biggest shareholder. Business-development director Alistair Flutter also holds a large stake, as do fellow directors David Walker and Mark Locke.

Betgenius has a number of divisions; pre-eminent among them Bestbetting - a comparison site that allows punters to check odds on sports events from about 60 different bookmakers to ensure they get the best value. As well as its own site, Betgenius also offers the service to business partners under different brands, in “white label” arrangements.

Another key part of operations is a service called Connextra that allows bookies to refresh their online advertisements automatically with live, real-time odds, whilst Margin Manager allows odds-setters to calculate risk and to react more swiftly to price movements at rivals.

The Sunday Times reported last weekend that analysts are expecting a wave of consolidation in the online betting and software industry. Sporting Index, the spread-betting firm that is increasingly providing services to bookmakers, could soon be sold, for example. Its owner, Hg Capital, has reportedly hired advisers to explore a possible sale.

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