Sportingbet sells stake in Bonza Gaming

21Mar 2013

Sportingbet

After officially offloading its Australian business to rival William Hill yesterday, London-listed online sportsbook and gaming operator Sportingbet has now sold its near 50 percent stake in the Bonza Gaming joint venture to Unibet Group.

Sportingbet partnered with social games developer Plumbee Limited in December to establish Bonza Gaming as a way to capitalise on the ‘real-money social-gambling arena’ and the new entity soon launched its Bonza Slots game for the UK market.

For its part, Malta-based Unibet Group revealed that it has paid the nominal sum of £100 for Sportingbet’s stake in Alderney-licensed Bonza Gaming but is to support the enterprise’s growth by providing it with a loan facility worth £2 million with £500,000 of this amount expected to be drawn down upon receiving the necessary regulatory approvals.

“Bonza is one of the first developers to launch real-money gaming on the Facebook platform,” read a statement from Unibet Group.

“After expected dilution for incentive schemes, Unibet Group’s equity interest in Bonza Gaming will be approximately 45 percent.”