Bwin.Party Sells Shareholder Stake in Gaming Realms

NewGame Capital, an investment firm managing Bwin.Party’s shareholder investments on UK-licensed interactive games developer Gaming Realms (GR), has served the latter with an official notification that the entire GR shareholdings held by NewGame for and in behalf of Bwin has been sold. The notification included an explanation that the divestment is in line with Bwin.Party’s ongoing initiative of disposing its non-core assets, aimed at increasing the gambling operator’s free float and for increasing fund liquidity for the benefit of Bwin.Party shareholders.

Accordingly, NewGame sold 20,374,768 GR shares representing 10.44 percent of Gaming Realms’ issued and subscribed common stock valued at 20 pence per share. Some of the purchasers include Executives and Directors at Gaming Realms and New Game, who bought the ordinary shares of stock at 10 pence each. Gaming Realm CEO Michael Buckley purchased 1,400,000 shares, which brought his total GR stake to 18,000,000 shares, representing 9.22 percent of GR’s issued capital stock. Patrick Southon, the Managing Director at NewGame and former CEO of Cashcade, increased his GR shareholdings to 10,897,039 or 5.58 percent, by buying additional 500,000 shares. Cashcade is the bingo subsidiary company owned by Bwin.Party

Other purchasers of the Bwin.Party divested GR shares include Jim Ryan and Atu Bali, Gaming Realms Non-Executive Directors who bought 1,000,000 shares each. Mr. Ryan now has total share holdings of 1,384,615 common shares, or 0.71 percent of Gaming Realms’ subscribed capital stocks. Mr. Bali is a first-time GR investor, whose purchase represents 0.51 of the company’s issued capital stocks.

As a result of the Bwin.Party divestment, NewGames Capital will wind up, since the investment company is a joint venture partnership deal between Bwin.Party and Gaming Realms’ co-founders Simon Collins and Patrick Southon. The two invested £1 million in NewGames, while Bwin.Party committed £15 million as financial backing.

Actually, the share buyers’ close links to Bwin.Party would explain the reason behind the advantageous 10 pence price paid per share. Mr. Southon is a co-founder and former Managing Director of Cashcade, while Mr. Collins, is also a Cashcade co-founder and former Cashcade Commercial Director. After the Bwin.Party Gaming merger in 2011, Mr. Sutton and Mr. Southon formed the NewGames investment company, to provide financial backing for Gaming Realms. The interactive games development company was likewise founded by Messrs. Southon and Collins together with incumbent Gaming Realms CEO Michael Buckley, another Cashcade founder and former CEO of Cashcade.

About Bwin.Party

Bwin.Party is a global online gaming business formed by the union between bwin Interactive Entertainment AG and PartyGaming Plc in 2011. The company holds licenses in multiple territories including Alderney, Belgium, Denmark, France, Gibraltar, Italy, Spain, and Schleswig-Holstein (Germany).

About Gaming Realms

Gaming Realms, creates, develops, and delivers slot games, bingo games and casino-themed real money social casino games, described as next-generation gaming entertainment for today’s new breed of online and mobile gamblers. Based in London, UK and licensed by the UK Gambling Commission, the company reported operational losses of $51,919 (£33,775) or $0.0017 (£0.11) loss per share in its Reported Earnings Results for a 12-month period ending January 31, 2015.