Billionaire Dermot Desmond plunks $1.7M to bankroll GAN’s product development plans

Gaming technology firm Game Account Network (GAN) has secured a £1.3 million ($1.7 million) from Irish billionaire Dermot Desmond.

Billionaire Dermot Desmond plunks $1.7M to bankroll GAN's product development plansThe investment was in the form of 3.25 million ordinary shares that GAN issued at 40 pence each to Desmond’s International Investment and Underwriting (IIU). The share placing represents 4.6 percent of the online gaming technology firm’s enlarged issued share capital, in which IIU is already a major investor.

The company, headed by Dermot Smurfit Junior, said it plans to use the net proceeds to accelerate product development and new client delivery following a surge in U.S. corporate demand for its products.

“Additional capital allows us to accelerate the development of our technical capability to deliver the product requirements of our growing list of corporate clients and bring new clients online,” Smurfit said in a statement. “The positive and unexpected surge in US corporate demand for GAN’s unique services requires increased delivery capability.”

GAN, which services mainly the U.S. market, made headlines several weeks ago when it announced that it had signed a deal with yet another mystery brick and mortar casino operator for its social gaming product.

Without naming names, Smurfit said the mystery client was the thirteenth client win for GAN and also their fourth major casino operator client. This is the company’s fifth signing this year, and just like its three other recent casino operator deals, GAN says it will only identify its latest signing “following the receipt of suitable commercial and/or regulatory consents.”

The only hint as to the identity of GAN’s new client was that it was “a major multi-property casino operator in the United States.” Whoever it is, their Simulated Gaming product is expected to launch in “late 2016” and will be integrated into the client’s property rewards program.

Among the confirmed identities of new Simulated Gaming clients that GAN has signed in 2016 are Rock Gaming Ohio, Isle of Capri Casinos and MGM Resorts’ Borgata casino in Atlantic City.