UK racecourse owner and operator Arena Racing Company has acquired a majority stake in Greek firm Vermantia, a leading provider of multi-channel content solutions for lotteries, gaming and betting operators.
The two parties held an existing business partnership and under the new arrangement Vermantia founder and chief executive, Filippos Antonopoulos, will remain as a shareholder in the business and carry on in his executive role.
The deal ensures ARC expands its international distribution capacity through Vermantia’s global partnership reach of 31 countries and agreements with more than 20 major gaming operators.
Through the addition of Vermantia’s Connect service, the product offering now includes over 60,000 live horseracing and greyhound racing events from the US, Australia, South Africa and the UK, all of which is supported by a portfolio of virtual sports.
ARC will accelerate Vermantia’s drive to create a global content hub at its headquarters in Athens, expand its technology team and infrastructure, and continue to design innovative solutions for the convergence of the retail and digital channels, along with improving the gaming experience.
Vermantia will continue to be the exclusive supplier of ARC’s portfolio of established greyhound content in a wide range of international markets, many of which already receive Vermantia’s betting channels, including most of South and Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Vermantia will produce and deliver bespoke channels to retail operators as well as distributing additional content controlled by ARC.
ARC chief executive, Martin Cruddace, said: “The acquisition of Vermantia fits perfectly with our existing rights portfolio of traditional trusted BAGS greyhound content and premium international content.
“Technological advancements mean that rights holders now have the opportunity to work together on both sale and delivery, making the old business model which relied on unconnected third parties, outdated. In our view rights’ holders no longer need to give away value to those third parties and our deals with horseracing and greyhounds in the US, Australia and South Africa demonstrate that proposition.”
Antonopoulos added: “Our collaboration with ARC takes the racing product verticalisation to the next level, bridging the rights and financial reach of an industry stalwart with a technological vehicle that combines content technologies and betting technologies, bringing to market an end-to-end racing offering that truly sets us apart.
“We are looking forward to boosting Vermantia’s product line, enter new markets or expand our presence in existing ones, maintain our focus on our customers’ needs, and take our business to the next phase of a competitive and dynamic presence in the global gaming industry.”