NetPlay makes £1m acquisition
NETPLAY TV, the interactive gaming company led by Lancashire entrepreneur Martin Higginson, has continued to expand with the £1m acquisition of two gambling businesses.
Lancaster-based NetPlay has bought Venturygames.co.uk, and Toucanwin.com from Info-download, a subsidiary of Zed Worldwide, the Spanish group which already holds a significant stake in NetPlay.
Zed has sold the business in exchange for 3.8 million shares priced at 26p. The deal takes its holding to 13.7%.
Chairman and chief executive Martin Higginson has a close relationship with Zed. In 2007 the Spanish group bought a controlling stake in Lancaster-based Monstermob, the business he founded. Mr Higginson had been ousted from the board in 2006 but Zed reappointed him following its takeover.
The deal announced today also includes details of two strategic partnerships with Zed which will enable NetPlay to tap into Zed’s mobile development work and its client base of more than 130 mobile network operators in 54 countries.
AIM-listed NetPlay operates interactive gaming services on the internet, television and through mobile phones. It said the acquisition of Venturygames.co.uk, which currently attracts attracts bets worth £400,000 a month, will help it develop its mobile services.
Toucanwin.com, described as a “skill” gaming business, allows people to challenge each other in games of skill for a cash prize and was designed to be played in countries where gambling is not allowed.
Mr Higginson said: “The mobile platform is an important part of our converged plan, and as such adding their mobile gambling business to ours strengthens this position further. Having access to the Zed mobile developers will enable us to develop integrated mobile applications much quicker and therefore give the consumer greater choice of which device he or she accesses our gaming services from.
“Adding skill gaming with the acquisition of toucanwin.com brings another business unit to our portfolio, allowing us to offer every form of gaming to the consumer from games of skill to bingo to full blown ‘live’ casino games. As we move forward, we will offer all of these services via multiple access points from mobile to internet to TV. The signing of this deal will also allow us access the millions of Zed users as well as their network of mobile network operator relationships.”
