By Mark Baber
February 22 – English Football Pools owner Sportech plc is in talks with its former chief operating officer Ian Hogg over a proposal to set up a new London stock market isted company to buy the institution for £100 million.
Sportech put the Pools up for sale last year but despite interest deals had not been completed. Hogg has the backing of City fund managers for the takeover and is being advised by stockbroker Cenkos Securities.
Hogg has reportedly been given preferred bidder status ahead of Canadian company Contagious Gaming and other potential bidders, after Netplay dropped out of the running two months ago.
Sportech Plc bought Littlewoods Gaming (formerly Littlewoods Leisure) from The Littlewoods Organisation for £161 million in 2000, subsequently consolidating the football pools market buy also acquiring Vernons and Zetter’s Football Pools and relaunching a rebranded version of the pools in 2008.
Football Pools in England – traditionally where players attempt to predict score draws from the weekend’s fixtures and enter into a pool for shared winnings – at the height of their popularity saw more than 10m people fillingin their pools coupons every week that were then collected at their doorsteps.
Pools and club lotteries were also a staple finance source for many English professional clubs, especially in the post war years. But with the advent of online betting and the launch of the National Lottery those days are long gone, though an estimated 350,000 still play the pools every week.
Sportech has a market capitalisation of £110.85 million but currently has negative earnings and has seen its stock declining by over 20% since July 2015. Any sale of the Football Pools arm would wipe out the company’s current debt whilst allowing it to focus on other areas of its business.
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