Intertain Online Gaming Group Buys Vera&John

The Toronto based Intertain Group is once again in the news for the acquisition of an online gambling brand. In June this year it had purchased the British online bingo provider Mandalay Media and earlier it had purchased the online gambling site InterCasino from Amaya Gaming. Now it has acquired the Vera&John gambling brand. The value of the deal was reported to be $126.1 million. Clearly acquisition is now the strategy for growth as far as Intertain is concerned.

Vera&John online casino was established in 2011. It differentiated itself from competitive brands by offering an exceptionally wide range of games from many online casino software developers. Their vendor list includes content from big names like Net Entertainment, BetSoft, Microgaming, IGT, Bally, NextGen and more. Vera&John offers more than 800 titles in total to close to half a million players. Hence Vera&John was the perfect online gaming organization for Intertain to acquire.

Initially the Intertain group took a more cautious approach to growth. It relied on steady expansion of their own product range through investment in better software, more games and high-quality content. Having once achieved a platform and brand recognition, Intertain set about buying up smaller but established brands to allow them to bring larger markets quickly within their fold. Vera&John is popular in Nordic countries.

Intertain’s chief executive officer John FitzGerald said in an interview that the goal is to make two acquisitions each year to expand the business, with a focus on games catering to the female demographic, such as bingo and slots. This strategy will differentiate the company from its competitors that are focused more on sports and other games geared toward men. At the same time Intertain wants to spread its customer base from predominantly the United Kingdom. The regions the company is looking at include Asia, Mexico, Central America and South America. To the disappointment of Canadian online players, FitzGerald said that Intertain will steer clear of Canada and the United States until the online gambling laws in these two countries are clarified.

Intertain went public after buying the InterCasino assets from Amaya. Today the stock valuation is at the higher end of its peer group. Even then most analysts have marked the share as a buy. Clarus Securities analyst Eyal Ofir explained, “You’re paying the higher end of the range, but you’re gaining the upside of additional M&A. The target for this stock, which is currently trading at $13.80, is $14.34 by the end of next year.

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