Prominent online casino and sportsbook operator 888 Holdings has announced the inking of an arrangement that is to see it sell off the entirety of its bingo business to Saphalata Holdings Limited for approximately $50 million.

The Gibraltar-headquartered firm used an official press release (pdf) to assert that the deal with the Broadway Gaming Limited subsidiary is now expected to close ‘during the second quarter of 2022’ involving all of its business-to-business and business-to-consumer bingo operations. However, the London-listed behemoth also pronounced that the whole transaction remains conditional upon the completion of an ongoing reorganization alongside this new-look enterprise receiving a license from the United Kingdom’s Gambling Commission regulator.

Larger target:

888 Holdings is currently closing in on the around $2.7 billion acquisition of the non-American assets of rival enterprise William Hill and it declared that the disposal of its bingo assets is to allow it to more closely focus on its ‘core business-to-consumer and United States growth strategies’. The giant company moreover proclaimed that it decided to sell after completing a ‘strategic review’ into its operations and will now be looking to set aside ‘greater resources’ to drive more traditional growth and reduce ‘compliance complexities’ that have arisen from hosting ‘related accounts’ across its iGaming platform.

Improved concentration:

Itai Pazner (pictured) serves as the Chief Executive Officer for 888 Holdings and he used the press release to explain that the upcoming divestiture, which is to encompass his company’s Dragonfish subsidiary, will moreover permit the giant ‘to further increase focus on its core platform and unified, scalable and proprietary technology.’ The boss additionally noted that this is to have the effect of allowing the company to further grow its presence across the casino, sport and poker verticals so as to become ‘one of the world’s leading online betting and gaming businesses.’

Read a statement from Pazner…

“The high-quality bingo business has been an important part of our history and over many years we have developed an advanced business-to-business offering alongside a suite of popular consumer-facing brands. As part of an enlarged business, I am very confident that the future for the bingo business is bright and I would like to express my immense gratitude for all of the hard work of the team over the years.”

Enlarging enterprise:

For its part and Broadway Gaming Limited is already responsible for a number of online bingo domains including ButlersBingo.com, GlossyBingo.com and DottyBingo.com. The Dublin-headquartered operator’s Chief Executive Officer, David Butler, admitted to being delighted with the purchase arrangement in advance of contending that the assets from 888 Holdings will soon allow his own company ‘to achieve an even stronger global footprint in key regulated bingo markets.’

Butler’s statement read…

“We have worked intensively with 888 Holdings over the course of the last few months and have been very impressed by the quality of its bingo platform and product, the business-to-consumer and business-to-business businesses, its approach to safer gambling and player protection and, above all, its management team. We see significant further expansion opportunities in both the business-to-consumer and business-to-business segments and are very excited about our plans for the future as we work closely together to become the pre-eminent online bingo business globally.”