Louise Agran is leaving her role as Chief Marketing Officer at the Spotlight Sports Group, home to the Racing Post, at the end of September and will be replaced by Gethin Evans, currently Digital Marketing Director.

Agran said ‘After twelve years, I have decided to take voluntary redundancy after the most incredible time working for the Racing Post and latterly the Spotlight Sports Group. It has been a total pleasure and privilege to work with such amazing people on fascinating brands and I have enjoyed more or less every single minute of it. Despite my huge affection and passion for the company, the time is right for me to move on and do something else. My very talented colleague and friend, Gethin Evans, will take over as Chief Marketing Officer for the Spotlight Sports Group from 1st October and I know he is going to do an absolutely brilliant job.’

Evans said ‘I am delighted to be taking the role of Chief Marketing Officer at Spotlight Sports Group. I believe we are set up to accelerate growth further thanks to the fantastic work Louise has done to help transform the business during her time here. From starting the digital transformation, integrating the businesses we acquired and building a high-performance culture – she leaves a formidable legacy. We have big plans across our brands, both in terms of content and partnerships and I can’t wait to get going.’

Spotlight Sports Group is the home to highly successful brands in the betting world including Racing Post, one of the most recognised and trusted names in sports betting with more than 34 years of intimate industry experience. The global reach and sports expertise are further strengthened by My Racing, Free Super Tips, Pickswise and Intellr. The specialist international agency services, ICS-digital and ICS-translate, help improve clients’ effectiveness in the marketplace by driving extended reach and increased traffic through performance marketing and by providing expertise in SEO, content marketing, digital PR and translation services.

Aspire Global has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of BtoBet Ltd, a leading B2B sportsbook and technology provider. The acquisition of the sportsbook constitutes a key part of Aspire Global’s growth strategy since it is a major step in creating an offering that covers the main elements of the B2B iGaming value chain. Together with the acquisition last year of the leading aggregator and games studio Pariplay, the purchase of BtoBet’s sportsbook platform positions Aspire Global among the world’s leading iGaming suppliers.

The purchase price is €20 million in cash of which €15 million at closing and €5 million twelve months after closing. In addition, there is an additional consideration based on BtoBet’s performance two years after closing. This consideration is seven times BtoBet’s EBIT in the second year from closing date minus the purchase price of €20 million. In 2019, BtoBet had revenues of €4.4 million and an EBITDA of €1.5 million and in the first six months of 2020 revenues were €3.1 million and EBITDA €1.2 million. The transaction is supposed to be closed during Q4 2020 with material positive effect on Aspire Global’s EBITDA as of 2021. The acquisition is not expected to have any material effect on the financial results in 2020. BtoBet is headquartered in Gibraltar and has almost 100 employees, the majority of which are based in the offices in Italy and North Macedonia.

With the proprietary sportsbook Aspire Global will control the IP in the full value chain and consequently also steer the complete roadmap. In addition, the proprietary sportsbook provides Aspire Global with the highest flexibility when it comes to adding new features and securing fast time to market.

BtoBet has 32 operators on its platform in Europe, Latin America and Africa. The company is a leading provider in Latin America and Africa and with the acquisition Aspire Global, with its broad presence in Europe and recent establishment in the US, takes a prime position also in these two growing markets. BtoBet’s platform, named Neuron 3, provides operators with the core technology for a player-centric environment to facilitate their player interaction in placing their bet in any channels of choice. The result is a betting experience with an accentuated entertainment perspective based on the seamless transition of the core technology which adapts to various scenarios related to the players’ behaviour through any channel, any jurisdictions and markets’ requirements.

Tsachi Maimon, CEO of Aspire Global, said: “Aspire Global now enters the sports betting arena with storm strength. With the acquisition of BtoBet we have become a true global B2B company which owns and provides an iGaming platform, sports betting, casino games and games aggregator as well as managed services for all continents and markets. Aspire Global can now compete for any deal, big or small, that exists out there.”

Tsachi Maimon continued: “This is a perfect match. We are impressed by the qualities of the Neuron Sports platform and in addition we will get access to new growth markets, new potential big deals and new opportunities.”

Alessandro Fried, founder and shareholder of BtoBet, said: “I am truly enthusiastic by the opportunities we see by becoming part of Aspire Global, the powerhouse for iGaming operators. With our joined forces we will take this new global iGaming offering in every corner of the earth. We have been in the industry for a long period of time and finally we met the perfect partner that matches our vision and with which we can build a stronger presence globally.”

Online Casino and Sportsbook Betzest™ expand their offering in a new cooperation with award-winning Swedish casino provider Yggdrasil™, which will give their players opportunity to access to Yggdrasil™ full range games portfolio most popular branded epic slots, including Valley of the Gods, Vault Of Fortune, Vikings go Wild, Beauty and the Beast, Wicked Circus, Double Dragons, Jackpot Express, Football Glory, Jungle Books, Temple Stacks: Splitz and many more.

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Marius Filip, Founder/CMO at Betzest, said: We are thrilled to conclude another partnership with leading casino provider Yggdrasil™. We’ve listened to our players and with this superb addition, we straighten our large client provider’s base in our key strategic markets. We trust that their high quality, innovative games, BOOST™ tools and gamification features will play an important part in taking Betzest™ casino to the next level. We are pleased to welcome them to the Betzest family and look forward to working with them closely for many years.
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A big thank you to our Betzest team for this great achievement and to Yggdrasil™ team for their continuous support during the process. We’ve had an extremely fruitful 2020 already, with a remarkable collection of world-class casino providers and payment methods on the way, I’m certain the best is yet to come.

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