Online lottery platform provider NeoGames completes acquisition of Aspire Global

Online lottery platform provider NeoGames on Friday announced that it completed the acquisition of B2B iGaming technology solutions provider Aspire Global.

NeoGames’ public offer was first made in January of this year for €402.3 million, where it bid to acquire 100 per cent of Aspire Global.

In total, 99.31 per cent of Aspire Global shares were tendered, the company said on Friday.

Shares that remain outstanding after 30th June will be subject to a squeeze-out proceeding, expected to be completed by around 11th August 2022. This could see NeoGames buy out the remaining shares of Aspire on a mandatory basis.

The offer was funded through a combination of newly issued NeoGames shares and cash. It will issue around 7.6 million shares – in the form of Swedish depository receipts, to shareholders of Aspire as payment of the equity component of the offer, while paying €251 million for the cash portion of the deal.

The combined company will be led by Moti Malul, who will continue to serve as chief executive officer, and Raviv Adler as chief financial officer. Tsachi Maimon, CEO of Aspire has joined NeoGames as President and will lead the newly formed iGaming division.

On his part, Mr Malul said: “We are thrilled to complete this strategic transaction with the Aspire Global team, and to commence working on identifying potential opportunities to capitalise on the merger of our platforms.”

“We believe this strategic combination will generate long-term shareholder value by synergistically capitalizing on the key strengths of our two companies and will help position NeoGames for expansion in new and existing markets. 

“By integrating our market-leading platform and scalable position within the rapidly expanding global ilottery market, with Aspire Global’s proprietary sports betting platform, BtoBet; its igaming content and aggregation platform, Pariplay; and its proprietary content and turn-key B2B igaming solutions, NeoGames is well positioned to increase our addressable market opportunities, and further expand our services to our North American customers.”

Mr Maimon added that the two businesses fit well together culturally:

“We believe both companies are well positioned to mutually grow our two platforms and execute on our strategic initiatives. Not only is this a strategic fit, it is also a strong cultural fit, as significant parts of both management teams worked together extensively during NeoGames’ inception,” he said.