888 Acquires Bingo Sites Inc Costa Bingo For £18M
Graham Tower
February 19, 2019
888 Holdings the parent company for 888Casino and 888Sport has today announced an agreed deal to acquire a number of online bingo brands including Costa Bingo from Jackpot Joy Group.
The sites were all included in the Mandalay Division of Jackpot Joy Group PLC (JPJ) and as well as Costa Bingo include others such as City Bingo and Fancy Bingo all of which have been operated on 888’s B2B bingo platform Dragonfish since 2009. When Costa was launched in 2009 as the Home of Free Bingo with the UK’s biggest ever Jackpot it became a household name almost overnight and was the most successful bingo brand launch at that time.
Mandalay generated approximately £11 million of revenue and approximately £3.7 million of profit before tax for JPJ Group in the twelve months to 31 December 2018. The sale allows JPJ Group to focus on its core UK site Jackpot Joy having also sold it’s social business to Bagelcode a South Korean social gaming company for £18.1M in September last year.
JPJ Group also operates other successful casino sites such as Vera&John and Botemania.
888 Chief Executive Itai Pazner commented, “We are pleased to announce the acquisition of this portfolio of brands which includes the well-established Costa Bingo. Having been developed on Dragonfish, the Group’s first-class B2B platform, we are confident that consolidating these brands into our existing B2C portfolio will deliver synergies and growth opportunities by applying the full extent of 888’s core capabilities in product, marketing and customer relationship management to their operations.””
888 Holdings subsidiary Brigend will be the vehicle for the acquisition paying £18M for the bingo sites with £12M on completion and the balance due in September. Both companies are listed on the London Stock Exchange and initial reaction from analysts suggest that the Jackpot Joy Group may have the best of the deal with analysts at Regulus Partners citing Mandalay’s underperformance in recent JPJ results, with revenue down 24% per year since 2015.
