Skip to main content

Betshop sold for peanuts as parent company go down the toilet

Poor website, poor offering and overvalued - no surprises that Betshop didn't achieve the €5m asking price as their owners, Leisure & Gaming (LNG), are stone broke and desperate for a sale.

LNG forced into administration and cut price Betshop sale

Embattled Leisure & Gaming (LNG) has been placed into administration with its principal asset, Betshop Group (Europe) Ltd (BSG) sold as a going concern to Honeymead Services for €1m, less than a fifth of the price it had previously agreed with Pefaco earlier this month.


Administration statement

On 12 October 2010 specialist restructuring, recovery and insolvency firm, FRP Advisory LLP ("FRP"), on behalf of the Company, contacted 13 potentially interested parties with a deadline to receive indicative funded offers for BSG by 14 October 2010 with a view to completing both due diligence and a transaction during week commencing 18 October 2010. Separately, five turnaround funds were also contacted. The short timescale to disposal was dictated by the group's critical cash position that required an injection of circa €3m, which included €1.5m as working capital into BSG, €0.5m into the Company to deal with immediate creditors and €1m to the bank who had issued demand for repayment.

Any punter that deals with this amateur firm obviously doesn't understand the concept of value, although their bookies must be beatable...

€450k of sports betting losses were incurred in the week ending 17 October 2010, further compounding the cash position in BSG.

Although this part is just a little curious....

Discussions were held with all parties, one of which was Honeymead Services Limited, a company which is controlled by a syndicate of investors including Gabriel Chaleplis, a director of BSG. Through that process, Honeymead Services Limited increased their initial offer to €1m payable as to €500k on completion and €500k deferred over 12 months. At the same time, the remaining interested parties withdrew from the bidding process.

A director of Betshop, which happened to lose a huge chunk of its value due to severe trading losses in the week before the sale, is part of the purchasing syndicate. Could be perfectly legitimate, but just smells a little bit fishy if you ask me...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Spot-fixing - you will never, ever be able to stop it

According to this report , IPL tournaments so far have been rife with spot-fixing - that is fixing minor elements of the game - runs in a single over, number of wides bowled etc. The curious part of that article is that the Income Tax department are supposed to have found these crimes. What idiot would be stupid enough to put down 'big wad of cash handed to me by bookie' as a source of income? Backhanders for sportsmen, particularly in a celebrity- and cricket-obsessed culture like India are not rare. They could come from anything like turning up to open someone's new business (not a sponsor, but a 'friend of a friend' arrangement), to being a guest at some devoted fan's dinner party etc. The opportunities are always there, and there will always be people trying to become friends with players and their entourage - that is human nature. This form of match-fixing (and it's not really fixing a match, just a minor element of it) is very hard to prove, but also, ...

lay the field - my favourite racing strategy

Dabbling with laying the field in-running at various prices today, not just one price, but several in the same race. Got several matched in the previous race at Brighton, then this race came along at Nottingham. Such a long straight at Nottingham makes punters often over-react and think the finish line is closer than it actually is. As you can see by the number of bets matched, there was plenty of volatility in this in-play market. It's rare you'll get a complete wipe-out with one horse getting matched at all levels, but it can happen, so don't give yourself too much risk...

BBVA Compass Bowl preview

Just a few more College Bowl games to go to complete the season. Here's another preview by James Jack, @materialista27 . And a reminder that if any previews aren't posted here, you should be able to find them on his dedicated College Bowl site . --------------- BBVA Compass Bowl Saturday January 5th, 12:00 CST (18:00 GMT) Legion Field, Birmingham, Alabama Pittsburgh Panthers vs. Ole Miss Rebels The BBVA Compass Bowl was originally created as the Birmingham Bowl in 2006 and has also been sponsored by Papa John's Pizza in its short history. The Bowl initially had a tie-in with the Conference-USA but they decided to rip that up in 2008 and signed a deal with the Big East and the SEC. It currently matches the 6th team from the Big East with the 9th team from the SEC, however in recent years, it appears to have become the Pittsburgh Bowl as this will be their third straight appearance, splitting the last two with SMU. Should this game follow that trend, Pittsburgh ...