888 Holdings Plc., a Gibraltar based company, has signed an agreement to purchase Wink Bingo for as much as £60 million to upgrade 888's presence in this growing area of the online gambling market. Wink's current owners Daub Ltd, will receive an initial payment of £11 million plus a payout of up to £48.7 million in the second quarter of 2011 depending on performance, with a final total of £59.7 million which translates into about $96 million.

Gigi Levy, Chief Executive Officer of 888 Holdings, commented that the purchase of Wink Bingo will help the company expand its online footprint "in the lucrative U.K. market". This is 888's second acquisition, of a bingo operation buying Globalcom Ltd. for $43.4 million back in March of 2007.

Bingo is thought to be the future new growth area for the online gambling industry. 888 was forced by American regulators to cease operations in that country shredding its market value three years ago. Levy thinks that the company will once again have a chance in the future U.S. market should the country revamp its current ban on online gambling.

Wink Bingo came on strong in early 2008 and soon became a valued asset with great brand recognition. Wink Bingo attracted more than 60,000 active players a month and generated revenues of £15 million and pre-tax profits of £1.3 million in the 11 months prior to 30 November.
Gala Coral, PartyGaming and Gamesys are all major players in the online bingo market and now with the Wink acquisition 888 will be more competitive. Foxy Bingo which is owned by Cashcade was bought by PartyPoker for £96 million last July after 888 lost its bid for that company.
Levy was quoted in the Times Online, as saying, “We see bingo as a social rather than a gambling experience.”

Posted on: January 15, 2010

Add This Gambling Article To:
Del.icio.us	Digg	Google	Spurl
Furl	Simpy	Y! MyWeb

Back to January 2010's archive
Back to latest News