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The 888Africa acquisition announcement raises questions about why GiG have opted to return to the B2C sphere. Richards warns against over-analysing the deal as a wholesale return to B2C, insisting that GiG remains a B2B platform and tech business at its core.
Asked why GiG had returned to B2C, Richards explains the decision was threefold.
“First, our own priorities have shifted,” he says. “We have been explicit that we are moving away from a growth-at-all-costs mindset, towards a more disciplined focus on profitability and cash generation, and 888Africa is immediately accretive on both counts.
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It has also been backed by the rollout of proprietary in-house technology within the SunBet tech stack, prompting the launch of a new user interface in South Africa and Botswana.
Bengtsson described the growth and early signs of success across the platform as “encouraging”.
“Growth continues to be driven by existing customers in slots and casino, although we are starting to broaden our offering through our sport business where recent momentum has been building.”
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“In my experience, where compliance concerns can be satisfactorily addressed without suspending an operator’s licence, the Commission may allow the operator to implement remedial measures or an action plan while continuing to trade,” says Richard Williams, partner at Keystone Law, speaking before the news of the collapse of the businesses.
“The fact that suspension has been considered necessary in this case therefore indicates that the Commission presently considers the issues sufficiently significant to justify preventing the operators from continuing to offer gambling while its reviews are ongoing.”
For any consumer-facing businesses, a suspension is likely existential and such appears to have been the case here. But wider implications have to be considered before the two sites are binned forever.