Unibet boss: Acquisition strategy going "according to plan"

Unibet CEO Henrik Tj?rnstr?m has hailed the performance of the operator’s Stan James Online and iGame Group brands, which he claims are both growing on a year-on-year basis.

Despite rumours to the contrary, Tj?rnstr?m told eGaming Review the two assets were performing in line with expectations and that the ongoing integration into the Unibet Group was proceeding as planned.

“We are working very closely with those teams and gradually integrating the businesses into the overall group, as expected and according to plan,” Tj?rnstr?m said.

“We are very pleased with that process and pleased that the growth is across the board from a product and brand perspective, with strong development across all brands,” he added.

Unibet’s quarterly financial results this week showed iGame Group and Stan James Online, which is expected to be rebranded to Unibet in the near future, contributed a combined ?14.7m in gross winnings revenue during Q2, accounting for approximately 12% of group revenues.

Total revenues for the three months ended 30 June 2016 increased 57% year-on-year, with the operator reporting double-digit growth across poker, casino & games and sports betting.

The firm did not breakout the revenue contributions from Stan James Online and iGame Group individually but Tj?rnstr?m told EGR both brands had grown year-on-year during Q2.

Stan James Online and iGame Group, which accounted for 216,515 of Unibet’s 1,132,840 active customers in Q2, were both acquired by the Stockholm-listed firm last year for ?19m and ?41.6m respectively.

And according to Tj?rnstr?m, Unibet was keeping its options open with regards to further potential M&A deals. “We get constant proposals as we have been quite active and are proving to be one of the biggest in the sector as well,” he said.

“At the same time we have good underlying organic growth which provides a good pivot and enables us to be a bit more selective with regards to M&A, so we will take them as they come.”