Leo Vegas buys Royal Panda

The New Zealand mobile gaming company Leo Vegas announced on October 24, 2017 that they acquired the Casino Royal Panda. The purchase price for Royal Panda was set at € 60 million with an option for an additional € 60 million if Royal Panda meets a number of financial targets within 12 months. In order to complete the purchase, the casino with a lion as a symbol has taken a loan of 100 million euros. In total, LeoVegas may pay 120 million euros for Royal Panda, but what will LeoVegas get for the money and why have they bought Royal Panda?

LeoVegas

LeoVegas was founded in 2012 and has from the beginning invested in mobile casino games with the goal of becoming the largest and best at mobile games. Leo Vegas I have also recently invested in sports betting and have developed an app for this that has made live betting very fast. In order to achieve the goal of being the best when it comes to mobile gaming, LeoVegas tries to use the best technology and cooperate with the top game developers. Aggressive marketing and a strategy that involves acquiring competitors is also a tactic they use. The marketing and the fact that they are a very good casino has led to them gaining a large number of loyal players, mainly in Scandinavia. By acquiring other casinos, LeoVegas is now also trying to grow in other markets, mainly the UK and this is where Royal Panda comes into the picture.

Royal Panda

Royal Panda is a relatively small Maltese online casino with a proprietary casino platform. Like LeoVegas, Royal Panda works very well on mobile and, like Leo Vegas, also has a new sports betting section. Unlike the lion, however, the Panda has a large presence in the markets that Leo Vegas wants to access, mainly the British one, but the Royal Pandas casino is also available in Chinese and Portuguese and has customers from all over the world, which LeoVegas does not yet have.

Synergies

There are several similarities between Royal Panda and Leo Vegas but they have applied different strategies when it comes to growing: while LeoVegas has aggressively invested in marketing in Scandinavia to quickly get bigger in this market, Royal Panda has instead invested in continuous global growth. Both Royal Panda and LeoVegas have been betting on mobile games from the start and they have both recently started up a business in sports betting. They have been natural competitors since day one, which eventually led to the lion taking out the wallet.

In connection with the purchase, LeoVegas CEO told that ”Royal Panda looks exactly as LeoVegas did two or three years ago. We can help them take advantage of growth instead of being hampered by challenges.” The CEO also says that they looked at 12-14 other companies before choosing Royal Panda. Royal Panda is a relatively small player with around 60 employees, while LeoVegas is a giant with over 300 employees. But where LeoVegas is at a disadvantage is that they still have almost 70% of their customers in the Nordic region. Through the acquisition of Royal Panda, LeoVegas increases its exposure to markets outside the Nordic region.

Summary

LeoVegas ' purchase of Royal Panda is likely to benefit both of these bookmakers. Royal Panda can get traction from the giant LeoVegas to grow in the Nordic market, while the lion with the help of Royal Panda can grow in new markets. As both companies develop their platforms themselves, significant synergy gains can be achieved.