Nektan agrees digital marketing arm buy-out agreement

Three months after inking a deal to supply real-money online casino games from developer High 5 Games to operators across Europe and Canada on an exclusive basis and platform provider Nektan has now agreed to spend just over $646,000 in order to take complete control of its digital marketing arm.

Gibraltar-based Nektan operates over 75 online casino brands on a “white-label” basis and declared that its latest agreement will see it fully acquire Nektan Marketing Services from the man behind digital marketing firm ActiveWin Media Limited, Warren Jacobs, and Betfred founder Fred Done.

Nektan stated that the deal will see it pay the pair approximately $322,800 followed by an additional $193,700 six months later with the remaining amount due a year after the original purchase agreement closes.

Launched in 2015 as a joint venture between Nektan, Jacobs and Done, Nektan Marketing Services provides player acquisition and retention tools to the platform innovator’s third-party customers encompassing media buying, affiliate network management, social media, search engine optimization and paid search services. Although initially developed for in-house iGaming brands, it was later deployed by other “white-label” domains such as Pots of Luck and The Sun Play.

“As part of the continued realignment of the business, the company has reached an agreement to buy out its joint venture partners in Nektan Management Services for a consideration of £500,000 ($646,078) payable in cash,” read a statement from Nektan. “As a consequence of this agreement, the put and call option between Nektan and its joint venture partners will fall away. This strategic transaction gives Nektan the ability to take greater control of its players and marketing on behalf of its partners.”

Nektan used the announcement of the deal to release a trading update for the three months to the end of June showing that its net gaming revenues had increased by 110% year-on-year to reach in excess of $5.4 million. The firm revealed that the twelve-month figure had hit almost $17 million, which was a boost of 130%, while the number of first-time depositors during the three-month cycle rose by 164% when compared with the same period in 2016 to reach 42,429.

As if this news wasn’t good enough, Nektan further disclosed that it had launched nine new online casino brands during the three months to the end of last month with the period seeing its cash wagering transactions swell by 145% year-on-year to hit just over $153.4 million.