Jumbo Interactive Sets Up StarVale Group Acquisition

Jumbo Interactive, one of the biggest digital retailers of national jackpot lotteries and charity lotteries in Australia, has announced that it is ready to continue its expansion in the United Kingdom with the acquisition of StarVale Group.

The Australian company announced that it will pay 32.1 million Australian dollars to take over StarVale Group, which is an external lottery manager and digital payments business in the United Kingdom.

The transaction will be executive through Jumbo Interactive UK, a new entity that was set up by the Australian company in the United Kingdom. In addition to the aforementioned initial acquisition fee, Jumbo also agreed to pay up to 8.5 million dollars in deferred payments, which are subject to StarVale achieving its earnings targets.

This acquisition is a further step in Jumbo’s strategy to expand in the United Kingdom, a plan which started with the purchase of Gatherwell in December 2019. Through Gatherwell, Jumbo secured a remote gambling software operating licence from the British Gambling Commission last year.

StarVale provides its services to over 850,000 active lottery players across over 45 charities and not-for-profit organisations in the United Kingdom. Moreover, StarVale Group also includes DDPay Limited, a digital payments business that supplies payment solutions to the company’s lottery clients.

Jumbo Interactive revealed that the acquisition of DDPay is equally important, because it would provide a cost-efficient way to process digital payments for the company’s operations in the United Kingdom.

Moreover, the acquisition of StarVale would allow Jumbo to drive further growth in the United Kingdom through its “Powered By Jumbo” platform. When the deal is completed, StarVale will be included in Jumbo’s Managed Services division, along with Gatherwell and Stride, a company which was purchased in August 2021.

The acquisition remains subject to approval by the Great Britain Gambling Commission, but Jumbo Interactive revealed that it expects the deal to be completed by the end of the 2021-2022 financial year.

In the first half of the previous fiscal year, Jumbo Interactive reported a declining profit, despite having recorded an increase in sales. The company’s revenue for the six months to 31 December 2020 was just under 41 million Australian dollars, which represented an increase of 8.8 percent compared to the same period of 2019.

Source: . Asia Gaming Brief. January 27, 2022.