Should the agreement be approved as expected at the Danske Spil general meeting, Ekstra Bladet will take ownership of Swush on 31 January. Dankse Spil and Ekstra Bladet agreed not to publish the purchase price for the Swush deal.
Swush.com, which offers fantasy sports in Denmark, is also the company behind sports management games provider Holdet.dk. Jesper Carstensen and Ole Christensen, co-founders of Swush.com, retained a 40% stake in the business along with the Danske Soil 60% holding.
After the acquisition, Holdet.dk will continue to run as an independent brand and business to Ekstra Bladet. Holdet.dk currently has more than 200,000 users across Denmark.
“Jesper and I launched Holdet.dk in 2009, and we are incredibly proud to have created such a large and popular game universe that thousands of committed couch trainers use daily,” Swush.com managing director Christensen said.
“We look forward to working closely with Ekstra Bladet and bold.dk to make sports more fun for even more sports fans.”
Ekstra Bladet commercial director Signe Skarequist also welcomed the new deal. Bladet said Holdet.dk and Ekstra Bladet are a “perfect match”.
“We see great potential in further developing Holdet.dk’s strong position and business together,” Skarequist said. “The purchase of Holdet.dk is a clear underlining of our ambition to create strong digital media that delivers appealing and relevant content to a large audience.”
Dankse Spil hails success of Swush
Dankse Spil held the Swush ownership stake for more than eight-and-a-half years. Nikolas Lyhne-Knudsen, Dankse Spil CEO, said the business was proud of Swush’s success in that time.
“We have greatly appreciated the co-ownership,” Lyhne-Knudsen said. “We are proud of recent years’ progress in Swush and for Holdet.dk. At the same time, we are happy that we have now found a good, new home for Holdet.dk.
“We look forward to following the further development under Ekstra Bladet. The gaming platform matches better with the company’s strategic ambitions, and that they can help grow Holdet.dk further.”
Dankse Spil highlighted the success of Swush in its Q3 results, posted in November. During Q3, revenue at Swush increased 10.0% year-on-year to DKK11.0m (£1.3m/€1.5m/$1.6m).
Other key figures for Dankse Spil in Q3 included group revenue rising 2.4% to DKK3.69bn. This was driven by a 3.1% rise in Danske Lotteri Spil revenue to DKK2.07bn, while Danske Klasse-lotteri revenue was up 39.7% to DKK183.0m.
Revenue from Danske Licens Spil, which includes sports betting and online casino, fell 1.6% to DKK1.21bn. In addition, Elite Gaming, its gaming hall business, saw revenue decline 2.7% to DKK217.0m.
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/strategy/ma/danske-spil-offloads-swush-stake-to-ekstra-bladet/
