Betsson

Betsson AB is a Swedish company that offers a number of online gambling products, such as casino, poker, bingo, sports betting and scratch cards through several wholly owned Malta-based subsidiaries, like BML Group Ltd and Betsson Malta Ltd. Betsson AB is listed on the NASDAQ Stockholm Large Cap List.^[1][3][4]

Corporate history

Betsson AB can trace its roots back to 1963, and the foundation of AB Restaurang Rouletter by Bill Lindwall and Rolf Lundström, later renamed Cherryföretagen AB (Cherry), which provided slot machines to restaurants in Sweden. Cherry acquired a minority share of Net Entertainment in 1998, which was a company co-founded with Investment AB Kinnevik, tasked with developing online gaming solutions. The rest of the shares in Net Entertainment held by Kinnevik was acquired by Cherry in 2000, making Kinnevik the largest shareholder of Cherry in the process. In 2003, after the return of Pontus Lindwall (son of Bill Lindwall), as the CEO of Cherry, the company buys into Betsson (founded by Henrik Bergquist, Anders Holmgren and Fredrik Sidfalk), which had a gaming licence in England at that time, and later acquires a license in Malta. In 2006, Cherryföretagen changes its name to Betsson and the traditional gaming operation in the business sector of Cherry merges into a new group, Cherryföretagen, which later shortens the name back to Cherry and launches its own online sector based in Malta.^[5] Magnus Silfverberg stepped up as CEO of Betsson in 2011, and took over after Pontus Lindwall, who has stayed on as chairman of the board.^[6][7][8][2]

Products

Betsson AB owns and operates a number of websites via its subsidiaries in Malta.^[1][9]

Business acquisitions

In 2011 the company acquired all of the shares in the Betsafe Group for SEK 292 M. The aim of the acquisition was to increase Betsson's market presence and enable continued growth. The acquisition grew Betsson's number of customers to approximately 419,000 — surpassing Unibet in the number of active players. That same year Betsson signed an agreement with a Chinese state-owned company regarding the development of joint-owned gaming operations.^[10][11]

In 2012, Betsson acquired the competitor Nordic Gaming Group and in 2013 they acquired the Automaten brands: SverigeAutomaten, NorgesAutomaten och DanmarksAutomaten, which thereby went from being a part of the business area B2B to become B2C brands. The company migrated its subsidiaries to the common platform Techsson.

In 2014 Betsson acquired the Dutch casino brands Oranje and Kroon. As a result of the great growth and the steady performance, Betsson got upgraded to the NASDAQ Stockholm Large Cap List, as of January 1st 2015.

References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "2013 Annual Report" (PDF). Betsson AB. Retrieved 5 August 2014. 
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "BETSSON AB - Grunddata" (in Swedish). Solid Info. Retrieved 5 August 2014. Registrering och aktivering: Bildat 1963-12-02 BV, Namn registrerat 2006-06-13 BV 
3. ↑ "Koncernstruktur - Betsson AB". Solid Info. Retrieved 5 August 2014. 
4. ↑ "About Us". Betsson. Retrieved 5 August 2014. 
5. ↑ http://dev.cherry.se/en/cherrys-history/
6. ↑ "History". Betsson. Retrieved 5 August 2014. 
7. ↑ "Betsson - superaktien som stigit över 11 000 procent" (in Swedish). Svenska Dagbladet. Retrieved 5 August 2014. 
8. ↑ "Tar hem spelet" (in Swedish). Affärsvärlden. Retrieved 5 August 2014. 
9. ↑ "Om Betsson" (in Swedish). Betsson AB. Retrieved 5 August 2014. 
10. ↑ "Annual Report 2011" (PDF). Betsson AB. Retrieved 5 August 2014. 
11. ↑ "Betsson i ledande roll" (in Swedish). Dagens Nyheter. Retrieved 5 August 2014. 

External links

• Betsson AB Corporate information