Proposed sale of Sportech Racing BV

Sportech provides horse racing betting services

The board of Sportech has announced that it has agreed terms with RBP Luxembourg regarding the proposed sale of Sportech Racing BV for a total cash consideration of up to £2.84m on a debt free/cash free basis.

Sportech Racing BV is the company’s Netherlands business, which obtained a new five-year licence in June 2017 for the exclusive rights to carry out tote betting on horseracing in the Netherlands.

This licence is operated in nine betting shops, 38 other outlets with point-of-sale terminals and online through the company’s website.

The proposed disposal is subject to, among other things, local regulatory consent and the transfer of various agreements and licences from certain Sportech group entities to Sportech Racing BV.

Up to £2.45m of the consideration will be payable at closing and up to a further £394,000 will be payable in January 2019, subject to certain agreed performance conditions being met. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of this year.

Andrew Gaughan, Sportech chief executive, said: “The proposed disposal represents an attractive opportunity to realise value following the successful licence extension and restructuring of the business by management as we increase focus on US growth opportunities.

“Sportech will continue to provide RBP, under a long term contract, its ongoing tote services and also has a strong working relationship with them focused on developing and selling their French racing pools into our vast footprint of global customers.”

The company warned there can be no certainty that the proposed disposal will complete and a further announcement will be made in due course.

Sportech is due to release its preliminary results for 2017 tomorrow, April 24.

The company comprised the old football pools business of Liverpool-based Littlewoods, subsequently adding the Vernons and Zetters football pools operations.

It expanded into the US and European betting market with the purchase of horse racing betting licences, and offloaded the football pools business last year for £83m to FP Acquisitions.

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