Press Release
The board of Gaming Corporation plc ("Gaming Corporation"), the owner of the UK's number 1 gaming website www.casino.co.uk, announces the acquisition of Newbold Enterprises Limited (Newbold) the owner of Gambling.com.
Gambling.com is the global leader in casino, poker, and sports betting search since 1997. Income is primarily generated through pay per click advertising where clients bid to reach higher rankings in the search results, a model used by other search companies such as Google and Overture.
Gambling.com is the number 1 listing on google.com for Gambling search and has over 500 other internet and affiliate sites linking to Gambling.com globally.
Gambling.com has extensive expertise in direct mailing and has built a double opt-in database of over 200,000 members.
Gambling.coms proprietary technology includes an International and UK specific pay per click bid management search engine. This allows advertisers to create and self manage their search listing campaigns from online deposits through to bid management and real time reporting. Like all the major pay per click search engines, Gambling.com uses complex algorithms and strict editorial to maximize efficiency for advertisers and end users alike. This technology also enables Gambling.com to distribute their gaming related listings to other web sites thus increasing their exposure and revenue earning potential. The technology can also be licensed to operators in other industries giving them the opportunity to create their own destination search sites
The consideration for the acquisition of Newbold is US$20million (10.5million) to be satisfied as to US$15.3million (8.0million) in cash and US$4.7million (2.5million) in new ordinary shares. A total of 17,375,244 Gaming Corporation shares are being issued, of which approximately 7.38million are subject to a lock-in of six months and the balance has been placed on behalf of the vendors of Newbold with institutional investors. As at 28 April 2005, Newbold had a net cash balance of over US$850,000, which implies an enterprise valuation for the business of US$19.15milion (10.1million).
Justin Drummond Chief Executive said,
This acquisition is a major step in the evolution of Gaming Corporation. Gambling.com is the leading global online Gaming search brand and a very profitable and fast growing business.
This acquisition forms part of Gaming Corporations strategy of building a portfolio of gaming brands that attract a worldwide audience.
We believe that bringing Gambling.com into our portfolio of gaming websites will enable Gambling.com to grow at an accelerated rate with improved profitability and create new revenue streams for our existing business.
For further information contact:
Gaming Corporation plc
Damion Greef, Communications Director, 07736 381 030
Trevor Phillips, Holborn PR, 020 7929 5599
Jason Drummond, Chairman, 020 7618 9000
Justin Drummond, Chief Executive, 020 7618 9000
Mark Ashurst, Canaccord Capital, 020 7518 2777