Arena Racing Company (“ARC”), the largest racecourse group in the UK, has acquired a majority stake in Vermantia, the leading provider of multi-channel content solutions worldwide.
Vermantia Founder and Chief Executive, Filippos Antonopoulos, remains as a shareholder in the business and shall carry on in his executive role.
The deal ensures ARC expands its international distribution capacity through Vermantia’s global partnership reach of 31 countries and agreements with more than 20 major gaming operators. Through the addition of Vermantia’s CONNECT, the product offering, now including over 60,000 live events every year made up of high quality horseracing and greyhound racing from the US, Australia, South Africa and the UK, all of which is supported by the widest portfolio of virtual sports in the industry.
ARC will accelerate Vermantia’s drive to create a global content hub in Athens, expand its technology team and infrastructure, and continue to design innovative solutions for the convergence of the retail and digital channels, and an ever-improving gaming experience.
Vermantia will continue to be the exclusive supplier of ARC’s portfolio of established greyhound content in a wide range of international markets, many of which already receive Vermantia’s betting channels, including most of South and Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, Vermantia will produce and deliver bespoke channels to retail operators as well as distributing additional content controlled by ARC.
ARC Chief Executive, Martin Cruddace, said: “ARC has established itself, along with its media partner At The Races, as the number one UK and international horse and greyhound content rights’ holder and distributor in the international market. The acquisition of Vermantia fits perfectly with our existing rights portfolio of traditional trusted BAGS greyhound content and premium international content.
“Technological advancements mean that rights’ holders now have the opportunity to work together on both sale and delivery, making the old business model which relied on unconnected third parties, outdated. In our view rights’ holders no longer need to give away value to those third parties and our deals with horseracing and greyhounds in the US, Australia and South Africa demonstrate that proposition.”
Vermantia Founder & Chief Executive, Filippos Antonopoulos, said: “We are excited to have done this deal with the ARC team and look forward to leveraging the great chemistry between our teams to ensure a strong platform for our business.
“Our collaboration with ARC takes the racing product verticalisation to the next level, bridging the rights and financial reach of an industry stalwart with a technological vehicle that combines content technologies and betting technologies, bringing to market an end-to-end racing offering that truly sets us apart.
“We are looking forward to boosting Vermantia’s product line, enter new markets or expand our presence in existing ones, maintain our focus on our customers’ needs, and take our business to the next phase of a competitive and dynamic presence in the global gaming industry.”
For further information please contact:
Susannah Gill
Director of External Affairs
Arena Racing Company
Office: 020 7802 5120
Mobile: 07751 870 929
Email: [email protected]
Diana Theodoridi
Marketing & Communications Coordinator
Vermantia
Office: +30 213 00 65 500
Email: [email protected]
About Vermantia:
Vermantia is the leading provider of omni-channel content solutions for lotteries, gaming & betting operators worldwide. Established in 2007, headquartered in Athens with a regional office in Italy and representatives in the UK & Romania, the company operates across 31 countries, reaching 22 operators internationally.
With a proven track record, multi-jurisdictional presence & long-term customer relationships with the largest players in the market (e.g. IGT, OPAP, SNAI, INTRALOT GROUP, SCIENTIFIC GAMES, EUROFOOTBALL, SUPERBET, CSLA), Vermantia constitutes a one-stop-shop for gaming content aggregation and delivery, providing 25+ high quality virtual games, the best International live sports and racing events as well as 85+ instant win games, eSports and DFS. The company has installed more than 40,000 Vermantia POINTs (company’s set top boxes) in retail shops internationally and is operating 32 live & virtual sports retail channels across the globe.
Vermantia is an Associate Member of the World Lottery Association (WLA), the Asian Pacific Lottery Association (APLA) and the European Lotteries Association (EL). Vermantia was awarded the SBC Best Retail Betting Product in 2017 and has received various awards for Extroversion and National Business Champion from Greek and European Conferences.
Further information about Vermantia can be found at www.vermantia.com
About ARC:
Arena Racing Company (“ARC”) is the largest racecourse operator in the UK. In 2017 ARC racecourses will host 540 fixtures with 1.2 million people attending racing at one of ARC’s racecourses each year.
ARC is made up of the following sixteen racecourses: Bath, Brighton, Chepstow, Doncaster, Ffos Las, Fontwell Park, Great Yarmouth, Hereford, Lingfield Park, Newcastle, Royal Windsor, Sedgefield, Southwell, Uttoxeter, Wolverhampton and Worcester.
ARC runs four of the six all-weather racecourses in the UK offering three different types of surface for horses to run on: Polytrack at Lingfield Park, fibresand at Southwell Racecourse and tapeta at Newcastle and Wolverhampton Racecourses – the only tapeta racing surfaces in Europe.
In 2013 ARC pioneered the All-Weather Championships which see horses compete throughout the winter for the chance of qualifying for a £1 million Finals Day on Good Friday at Lingfield Park. This initiative is helping raise the profile and prestige of all-weather racing in Great Britain.
ARC hosts racing at all levels of the sport from Class 7 through to Group 1s. Doncaster Racecourse is home to the world’s oldest Classic, the St Leger, run each year in September as part of the four-day St Leger Festival. Feature jumps races include the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle Racecourse, the Welsh National at Chepstow Racecourse and Midlands National at Uttoxeter Racecourse.
As well as racing, ARC also operates a hotel at Wolverhampton Racecourse, a hotel, spa resort and golf course at Lingfield Park and The Border Minstrel public house at Newcastle Racecourse in the grounds of Gosforth Park.
ARC is a significant shareholder in the horseracing TV channel At The Races which is broadcast on the Sky platform to c.14 million homes, and a JV partner with Racing UK in GBI Racing which sells UK and Irish Racing to betting shop operators around the world.
In 2015 ARC set up The Racing Partnership. This limited company represents the media rights of the 15 ARC owned-racecourses and the 7 independent racecourses Fakenham, Ffos Las, Hexham, Newton Abbot, Plumpton, Ripon and Towcester.
ARC plays a pivotal role in British Racing. It is a shareholder in British Champions Series and Racecourse Data Company; a signatory to a British Horseracing Authority’s and Horsemen’s Group Prize Money Agreement; and on the boards of the Racecourse Association (“RCA”), Great British Racing (“GBR”) and British Champion Series (“BCS”).
ARC employs over 500 permanent staff and engages with 3,500 casual staff for racing and events across its racecourses. Further information about ARC can be found at www.arenaracingcompany.co.uk.
