Smurfit Jnr signals M&A plan at online gaming tech firm Gan

Dermot Smurfit

Sean Pollock Email

April 18 2021 02:30 AM

Dermot Smurfit Jnr has said his gaming technology company Gan could carry out bolt-on acquisitions valued “from anywhere between $5m to $50m” this year.

Smurfit Jnr, whose family is behind paper and packaging giant Smurfit Kappa, spoke to the Sunday Independent following Gan’s recent results. Gan’s full-year total revenue was up 17pc to $35.2m, while it has forecast 2021 revenue to be between $100m to $105m.

Smurfit Jnr said he was “80pc happy, 20pc sad” about Gan’s results for the financial year. The Nasdaq-listed company just missed financial projections for the fourth quarter after a $3m chunk of revenue was moved at the last minute into the current financial year.

Despite missing projections for the quarter, Smurfit feels confident that Gan will reach a significant milestone in hitting its forecast revenue of around $100m in 2021.

“The growth rate is phenomenal, and it’s not that surprising. It’s America; it’s regulating internet gambling, it’s sports and online casino,” he said.

Smurfit recognised that Coolbet, the online sportsbook platform it acquired in a deal worth $149.1m, will play a significant role in the year ahead. It is set to contribute around half of Gan’s total revenue.

With the Coolbet acquisition complete, Smurfit Jnr said Gan could look to complete some small bolt-on acquisitions. He said Gan had developed an online casino content strategy, which took a back seat as the company completed the Coolbet deal.

“As we go through Q1 and slightly later on in the year, you will see us unfold a little bit. We will set out our stall and present the content strategy in incremental detail. That’s how we get the take rate gross operator revenue shoved up aggressively several points.

“It’s about getting Coolbet deployed into the market and doing the obvious blocking and tackling online casino game content deals. And that could be M&A, nothing as substantial as Coolbet, but it could be some small, bolt-on acquisitions which would typically be... anywhere from $5m to $50m would be an obvious sweet spot range for us.

“I would hope we can do a combination,” he added. “We could do some small bolt-ons and do some exclusive content licensing deals, which make sense to all of our clients. All that does is makes us more powerful as a platform and content provider.”