Ladbrokes and Coral owner, GVC Group, has announced that it has agreed to acquire Portuguese-facing online operator, Bet.pt in an endeavor to enhance its business across the Iberian Peninsula.
Bet.pt was one of the first entrants to the Portuguese regulated market, obtaining its sports betting license in 2016 and is casino license in 2017.
According to GVC, Bet.pt is one of the prime online operators in Portugal, with a distinct emphasis on sports-betting.
A spokesperson for GVC commented that by leveraging their technology, extensive portfolio of gaming content, marketing and CRM capabilities, as well as growing the sports offering, they see plenty of opportunities to grow its profitability and market position.
Shay Segev, the Chief Executive Officer at GVC, added that this acquisition is consistent with their strategy of expanding into new markets that are either regulated or regulating, in order to support their international growth ambitions.
Segev went on to say that while the risk of further restrictions as a result of COVID-19 mean that they remain captious on the short-term outlook, in the longer term they are confident of being able to continue delivering sustainable growth for all their stakeholders.
SRIJ’s fIgures revealed that in 2020, a new record for H1 gross gaming revenue (GGR) during the period of lockdown in the nation, with operators bringing in revenue of €138.9m, up 44.2% year-on-year.
After obtaining its license from local gambling regulator SRIJ (The Portuguese Gambling Regulator) Bet.pt launched in Portugal in 2016 through a partnership with sports-book platform provider SBTech.
