British online casino and sportsbetting behemoth Entain has announced the signing of a deal that is to see it spend as much as €850 million ($888 million) so as to acquire the BetEnt BV arm of Dutch counterpart Sports Entertainment Media BV.

The London-listed company used an official Monday press release to detail that this arrangement involving an initial €300 million ($313.3 million) payment is set to be completed during the second half of the year and contains a deferred contingent consideration that could top out at up to €550 million ($574.7 million).

Increased investment:

Previously known as GVC Holdings until undergoing a December of 2020 name-change, Entain is responsible for a slew of online casino and sportsbetting domains including Ladbrokes.com, Bwin.com, Coral.co.uk and Sportingbet.com. The Isle of Man-based firm established in 2004 furthermore recently inked separate agreements to purchase Eastern European operator Olympic Entertainment Group as well as smaller Canadian enterprise Deis Limited.

Dutch debut:

Jette Nygaard-Andersen (pictured) serves as the Chief Executive Officer for Entain and she used the press release to explain that her firm’s acquisition of BetEnt BV is to see it enter the newly-regulated iGaming market of the Netherlands via the locally-licensed online casino at BetCity.nl. The experienced professional moreover pronounced that this domain’s offerings are ‘highly complementary’ to many of its existing brands, which are themselves awaiting licenses from the Kansspelautoriteit regulator, and will allow it to add ‘local expertise, a strong brand and a large and diverse user-base’ in order to provide Dutch aficionados ‘with a broader offering of engaging products, fresh content and new experiences.’

Static supervision:

Entain declared that the current Chief Executive Officer for BetEnt BV, Melvin Bostelaar, alongside ‘other key members’ of the target enterprise’s leadership team are to remain in post following the completion of its purchase. It also proclaimed that this move will allow it to better exploit an iGaming market in the Netherlands that is ‘highly attractive and fast-growing across both sportsbetting and gaming’ and continue to cultivate a business that already holds an around 20% share of the local market.

Read a statement from Nygaard-Andersen…

“We are delighted that BetCity.nl is joining Entain and are excited by the significant opportunities in the newly-regulated Dutch market. This acquisition will provide customers with an even better experience as we combine BetCity.nl’s local expertise and brand with our own market-leading and customer-focused platform. This transaction further underpins our growth strategy of operating in attractive regulated markets and we look forward to working with Melvin and the team at BetCity.nl.”

Pleased professional:

For his part and Bostelaar described Entain as ‘a world-class group’ that will now be able to help the BetCity.nl domain ‘to maintain a strong market position in the Dutch market for the coming years’. The boss additionally asserted that the giant is to provide his enterprise with ‘a fantastic opportunity to expand and enrich our customer offering’ via the utilization of its ‘market-leading platform, technology, established brands and global scale.’

A statement from Bostelaar read…

“Both BetCity.nl and Entain position the customer at the heart of everything they do with Entain’s core values and philosophy in responsible gaming, compliance and company-culture seamlessly aligning with those of BetCity.nl. We look forward to a bright future together.”