Entain CEE Cleans Up, Set To Acquire Poland’s STS For £750m
With patronising jokes about “Polish plumbers” and “Polish cleaners” fast consigned to post-Brexit ennui, and the former Communist satellite now, head-for-head, economically outperforming Britain, UK-based Omnichannel Entain has just made a £750 million move (US$947.72m) on Poland’s top sportsbook operator STS Holding.
The deal is being powered by Entain CEE, Entain’s joint-venture with the Czech Republic investment fund Emma Capital – and, most importantly, has the full backing of father and son Zbigiew and Mateusz Juroszek, respectively founder and current Chief Executive of STS, who own 70 percent of the Warsaw stock market-listed business.
Accelerating her avowed pledge to make FTSE-100 gambling giant Entain a totally regulated business by year end 2024, CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen affirmed: “We are delighted to be acquiring the leading sports-betting operator in Poland, which is a hugely exciting and fast-growing market.
Compelling
“STS is an exceptional business with a great brand, a compelling Omnichannel offering and an outstanding CEO and management team.
“The transaction is perfectly aligned with our Entain CEE strategy and our wider M&A strategy of acquiring high quality businesses with leading positions in attractive, growing and regulated markets.
“Expansion across central and eastern Europe remains a core component of our growth plans and STS will be an integral part of our platform in that region.”
Entain and Emma Capital formed their CEE venture last August, with Entain as the majority, 75 percent, stakeholder, following the £690 million acquisition (US$871.91m) of Croatia’s dominant SuperSport iGaming operator.
Sources close to the proposed STS acquisition say Entain CEE will finance the deal through a banking triad of Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Banco Santander.
Poland’s GGR hit the equivalent of £1.26 billion (US$1.6bn) last year and its gambling market is predicted to grow by over 10 percent by 2025.
STS, which owns 400 retail betting shops in the nation of 38 million people, declared a Net Gaming Revenue of PLN663 million last year (£126.97m/US$160.43m).
