Liverpool-based Sportech has released an interim statement in which it claims to have made ‘significant progress’ since its £51.4m acquisition of New Jersey-based pari-mutuel operator Scientific Games Racing (SGR) earlier this year. The integration of SGR, which has since been renamed Sportech Racing, is proceeding apace, giving the group “the platform for further developing our potential in the emerging global regulated markets,” according to CEO Ian Penrose.
Such markets include Connecticut, where Sportech is increasing its number of off-track betting locations to 14, but also more exotic locales like Chile, where Sportech has inked a deal for betting systems covering racetracks, phone betting and some 200 OTB shops. Sportech’s popular Football Pools operation, played by over 500k people each week, will be distributed throughout South America and the Caribbean by pari-mutuel outfit Sol Mutuel beginning in Q2 2011, and Sportech’s Indian joint venture, SportsHero.com, has amassed over 100k customers in the past six months.
In news closer to home, Penrose is still sweet on acquiring the UK Tote and its 517 betting shops, if and when the bloody auction ever gets underway. The deadline for first bids is now Dec. 10, and Penrose promises his company will at least “take a look at it. Conceptually, it would make a lot of sense for us.” Of course, they’ll have to show up at Tote’s door with a bigger box of chocolates than Betfred, Paddy Power, William Hill, Ladbrokes and/or Gala Coral, but hey, if Sportech’s business is doing as well as Penrose claims, the extra big tin of Quality Street shouldn’t be too far out of their reach.
