Ladbrokes owner in $1bn Baltic expansion bid
Entain made an indicative offer in recent weeks of more than €880m for the Estonian company, which runs casinos and online gambling sites in the region, according to sources.
Ladbrokes owner Entain is understood to be pursuing a takeover of Olympic Entertainment Group, one of the Baltic region’s largest gambling companies.
Entain made an indicative offer in recent weeks of more than $1bn (€880m) for the Estonian company, which runs casinos and online gambling sites in the region, according to sources.
Olympic is one of the few remaining assets from the portfolio of London-based Novalpina Capital, which owns NSO Group, developer of the controversial Pegasus spyware tool that’s come under fire for its use by autocratic governments to spy on journalists and activists.
The private equity firm collapsed earlier this year amid a fight between its three founders, and its investors voted to move management of the fund’s remaining holdings to Berkeley Research Group.
A sale could help backers of the former Novalpina fund recoup all of their investment with a profit.
Entain acquired Swedish gaming company Enlabs earlier this year to expand in the Baltics and could achieve cost savings through a further deal in the region.
Olympic has operations in countries including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Italy.
The company, which Novalpina bought in 2018 for about €288m, has grown through acquisitions that helped it expand in markets including Romania and Croatia.
• Bloomberg
