Shareholders of online gambling technology company GAN have given their approval to see the company delisted from the Euronext Growth trading platform. GAN has been floated on the exchange since November 2013, but will be removed as of 7 a.m. on Wednesday. The move comes as the company has seen no trading of its stock on the Dublin-based platform.
According to The Times media outlet in the U.K., GAN shareholders held their annual meeting in London last week, approving the suggestion that the company be delisted. Dermoot Smurfit, GAN’s CEO, explained that there was “no trading going on” and that staying on the market was a “waste of time and energy and administrative overhead.”
There may be more to the decision than that, however. A few months ago, it was announced that the company could possibly be looking to sell the business, or that it could be considering a listing on a stock exchange in the United States.
GAN has been around since 2002. It creates and distributes Internet gaming and betting services, software and content to business-to-business customers in the U.S. and across Europe, and has seen revenue growth of over 100% since the U.S. Supreme Court defeated the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) in May 2018. In absence of any interest on the Ireland-based exchange, and huge potential in the U.S. and other recently opened markets in Europe, a move to another exchange would be strategically advantageous.
As it contemplates what its next steps will be, GAN has turned to Union Gaming for some assistance. It has employed the firm to act as its financial adviser to review the landscape and make recommendations on how to proceed. GAN asserts that it is not actively involved in any talks to sell the business, but that it would be willing to consider its options if the right offer were presented.
GAN launched operations in New Jersey last September, four months after PASPA was overturned and three months after the state’s lawmakers approved an online gambling market. Smurfit said in the meeting last week that the company is “firmly focused on taking advantage of the incremental U.S. Internet sports betting opportunity” and that its clients have enjoyed significant revenue increases since New Jersey began offering online gambling. He added, “2019 will be another year of tremendous operational and financial progress.”
