Flutter Entertainment Buys Majority Stake in Junglee Rummy for Around US$67 Mn.
The world’s biggest online gambling and betting conglomerate, Flutte🅘r Entertainment Plc. has acquired 50.1% stake in Junglee Games, the company wh༒ich operates the online rummy website Junglee Rummy, fantasy sports portal Howzat, as well as, teenpatti and other social games.
The deal was for a cash consideration o🍷f 48 m🐽illion GBP (approximately $67 million USD), which gives the global gaming behemoth majority control in Junglee, with Flutter having the option to buy out the remaining 49.9% stake in the company by 2025.
According to those in the knowledge of things, the deal was at a considerably lower valuation than expected due to recent bans on online games for stakes, including rummy and fantasy sports in states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh which con🎃tribute more than 35% revenues for rummy🌌 operators.
Before finalising the deal with Junglee Games, which is amongst the top five rummy companies in India, Flutter was said to be i🌜n talks with another major rummy operator.
Flutter Entertainment is a global market leader for online gambling and betting services and has a market cap of around US$35 billion. It operates various top gaming brands in European, Australian, and American markets such as Betfair, Paddy Power, FanDuel,𒁃 PokerStars, Fox Bet, and Full Til𒈔t Poker.
In India, the group has licensed its PokerStars brand for an India-spec♓ific poker webs𒀰ite to Sachiko Gaming Private Limited (a Sugal & Damani Group company).
This is the third big M&A deal in the online gaming space in India this year. Last month, it was reported that the online skill games platform Mobile Premier League (MPL) raised US$95 million in a Series D round at a valuatio🌞n of around US$ 945 million. The round was led by Composite Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures, with participation from Base Partners, RTP Global, SIG, Go-Ventures, Telstra Ventures, Founders Circle and Play Ventures.
A few existing investors of the leading fantasy sports platform Dreamꦰ11 are also said to have completed🌱 a secondary sale transaction, a few weeks ago, at a🍎 company valuation of around US$4 billion.
