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Arena Racing Company (“ARC”), the largest racecourse group in the UK, has concluded a strategic investment in Vermantia, a leader in omni-channel content solutions worldwide.
The deal ensures ARC expands its international distribution capacity through Vermantia’s global reach of 31 countries and agreements with more than 20 major gaming operators. Through the addition of Vermantia’s CONNECT platform, the product offering, now including over 60,000 live events per year made up of high quality horseracing and greyhound racing from the US, Australia, South Africa and the UK, is supported by the widest portfolio of virtual sports in the industry.
ARC will accelerate Vermantia’s drive to create a global content hub in Athens, by enlarging its market-leading broadcast infrastructure, expanding its technology team, and continue to design innovative solutions for the convergence of the retail and digital channels, and an ever-improving 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. Moreover, Vermantia will produce and deliver bespoke channels to retail operators, as well as distributing additional content controlled by ARC.
Vermantia Founder and Chief Executive, Filippos Antonopoulos, remains as a shareholder in the business and shall carry on in his executive role.
ARC Chief Executive, Martin Cruddace, said:
“ARC has established itself, along with its media partner At The Races, as the number one UK and international horse and greyhound content rights holder and distributor on the international market. The acquisition of Vermantia fits perfectly with our existing rights portfolio of traditional trusted BAGS greyhound content and premium international content.
“ARC and its international partners all have integrated technologies, from broadcasting to self-service terminals, and it is clear that technology 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the opportunity to work together on both sale and delivery, making the old business model which relied on a middleman, outdated. In our view, rights’ holders no longer need to give away value to third parties and our deals with horseracing and greyhounds in the US, Australia and South Africa demonstrates that proposition.”
Vermantia Founder & Chief Executive, Filippos Antonopoulos, said:
“We are excited to have done this deal with the ARC team and look forward to leverage the great chemistry between our teams towards a strong expansion of our business.
“ARC’s investment and partnership creates a unique offering in global racing. It also recognizes the work done by our team over the years, in creating a strong brand name in content technologies, and exporting innovation to an increasingly global gaming industry.
“We are looking forward to boosting Vermantia’s product line, enter new markets, 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.”
Source: European Gaming Industry News
