You are in:
Playtech moves into Bingo with Virtue Fusion acquisition
Gaming software provider Playtech has acquired the business and assets of online Bingo developer Virtue Fusion.
Virtue Fusion is claimed to have the largest independent network in the fast-growing online Bingo sector, with 30,000 daily players and more than €100m ($135m) staked each month.
Its main market is Britain, although it also has players from other European countries. At peak times up to 6000 players can be active simultaneously.
More than 20 licensees include Bet365, Crown Bingo, Ladbrokes, Mecca, Paddy Power, Sky, Virgin and William Hill.
Customers can either join the Virtual Fusion network or use its technology to run their own Bingo operations.
Among the most recent additions to its roster is PartyGaming’s Foxy Bingo in Sweden.
Management see the greater liquidity of a combined gaming network as a key benefit of the takeover.
“As with Poker, network player liquidity is an important element for Bingo operators,” said Playtech. “By linking the operator’s Bingo rooms across the network, Virtue Fusion can facilitate more frequent games being offered and higher prize values and jackpots for the same individual stake. Both Playtech and Virtue Fusion’s existing licensees will therefore enjoy the benefits of increased liquidity when their networks are combined.”
Virtual Fusion licensees will also have access to slots and other games from Playtech, as well as the firm’s IMS information management system.
And Playtech – which went public four years ago via a £548m ($817m) flotation on Britain’s Alternative Investment Market – is hoping that the acquisition will enable it to expand into new territories.
“In a number of newly regulated markets, Bingo is an embedded part of the social and gaming culture and a product which finds early favour with regulators.
Consequently we see this acquisition as not only furthering what is already Playtech’s competitive advantage in the growing online gaming market as a whole, but as having the potential to generate meaningful opportunities in newly regulated markets,” added Mor Weizer, Playtech’s CEO.
Playtech is paying £29m ($43m) for Virtue Fusion, which it is drawing from cash. A further payment of up to £7m ($10m) could be due in the first quarter of 2011, based on 2010 performance.
The company said it expects the Virtue Fusion business, which last year turned over £12.3m ($18m) and generated earnings of £3.8m ($5.7m), to contribute to its bottom line this year. Key Virtue Fusion personnel, including its founders, have undertaken to remain in place for two years.
