NetEnt And Evolution Gaming Could Rule The Industry Of IGaming

Last week, it was announced Evolution Gaming, the Latvian iGaming solutions provider, based in Riga, which has a numerous services for the gaming industry, from tools and solutions to a huge catalogue of live casino games and slots, had made an offer of 19.6 billions of Swedish kronas ($2.1 billions) to acquire Red Tiger Swedish owner NetEnt, one of the most famous European online games supplier and casino operator , based in Malta . The proposed offer, which is yet to be accepted, valued each share in the Swedish supplier at 79.93 Swedish kronas. Many sector's writers and journalists had the chance to speak with a representative from Evolution Gaming to understand the main reasons behind the company’s interest in NetEnt and to establish how it fits into its future plans.

Firstly, the spokesperson revealed that negotiations surrounding the planned offer began this year, after being “initiated some time after the Q1 report.”

When he was asked for the main reasons behind the planned acquisition, Evolution Gaming insisted the aim of the merger was to drive digitalisation in gaming.The company spokesperson said: “The combined company will become a leading online gaming provider with a strong platform for international growth and expansion.

“The merger of Evolution’s leading position in live casino with NetEnt’s strong position in slots will create a best-in-class B2B provider with capacity to drive the digitalisation of the global gaming industry.”

Of course, NetEnt’s acquisition of slot provider Red Tiger Gaming in September 2019 also had its part to play in generating interest from Evolution Gaming, although the spokesperson was hesitant to attribute too much significance to this factor.

“Red Tiger is a part of NetEnt,” he said. “So naturally we have considered the whole company in the offer.”Evolution Gaming has been steadily growing as a company in recent years, generating revenue of €365.8m ($410.2m) for the full-year 2019, a rise of 49% year-on-year.

Asked how the deal fits into the company’s long-term plans for growth, Evolution Gaming replied that the acquisition will mark a “significant step” towards its goal of becoming the “market leader in the online casino industry.”

Evolution Gaming expects the proposal, which the spokesperson described as “a very attractive offer,” to be accepted by NetEnt after receiving support from all the major shareholders in the company. This add to the previous new that came out last week, it is just a more specific commentary on the big bomb dropped the previous week. If the deal will be made, this acquisition will be a huge thing inside the European gambling market. NetEnt, infact, can operate in regulated market like UK, Malta, Belgium, Spain, Romania, Italy and USA, while Evolution Gaming can operate in countries like Malta, Latvia, Romania, Netherlands, Estonia, UK, Canada, USA and Georgia. With this acquisition both of them have the chance to expand their dominion inside the online game industry.