Betbull To Diversify Into High Street Bookie Shops

Published: Friday, September 09, 2005 Online-Casinos.com

BETBULL TO DIVERSIFY INTO HIGH STREET BOOKIE SHOPS

Euro 14 million acquisition of Leip Group the start of a retail growth strategy

Betting exchange firm BetBull charged into the European business press this week with its acquisition of German retail bookmaker the Leip Group for around Euro14 million (US$17.5 million), announcing plans to diversify into high-street bookmaking.

"This acquisition is only the start of our continental European retail growth strategy" Simon Bold, COO of Betbull, said.

The purchase of Leip's estate of 80 shops for Euro 10 million in cash and 700,000 shares is part of a plan to become the "leading Continental European retail betting player" a company spokesman said.

The Leip Group posted a pre-tax profit of Euro 1 million on a turnover of Euro 51.7 million for the year ending December 2004.

Günter Schmid, chief executive of Gibraltar-licensed Betbull, said his firm aims to grow the business organically, but will also seek further acquisitions to grow the scale of the retail operation. The move into retail betting comes on the back of another quarter of low revenues, with just GBP 21,000 generated from the firm's betting exchange operations.

Betbull has launched a German language version of its site, designed to create a fixed-odds betting product for the German horseracing industry.

Bold, who started his betting career in the land-based side of the business, said the move into retail betting was a big step forward for the firm. "This is a fantastic opportunity for Betbull to be part of the retail business in Germany during World Cup year," he said.