888 Holdings to Acquire Wink Bingo
Written by Hollie   
Tuesday, 22 December 2009

News has been coming in thick and fast today about the pending acquisition of Wink Bingo by 888 Holdings PLC, owners of 888 Ladies Bingo. It was with great shock we learned today, that 888 have just entered into an agreement to purchase Wink Bingo who are currently owned by Daub Ltd. It is thought this deal could be worth nearly £60 million for Daub, so this is definitely not pocket change we are talking about.

An initial payment of £11 million to Daub Ltd will secure the Wink Bingo buyout deal for 888 Holdings, with future payments being due to them depending on their performance over the coming months, which does mean the whole acquisition could end up costing 888 near on the £60m mark.

As reported by Reuters, Gigi Levy who is the CEO for 888 said, "We are delighted to announce the Wink Bingo acquisition as an expansion of our B2C online Bingo footprint in the lucrative UK market. The transaction is financially attractive and will be earnings enhancing”.

In just 11 months Wink Bingo brought in revenue toppling £15 million pounds and had pre tax profits of £1.3 million, so it is no wonder that they look like a very good prospect for 888.

Wink Bingo first hit the net back in Feb 08 and they have not looked back since. Daub Ltd also own a couple of other bingo sites on the net Posh Bingo and Bingo Fabulous, but neither of these have been quite as successful as the Wink Bingo brand name, although Posh Bingo have certainly been an up and coming bingo site over the past couple of months since their re-vamp and moving to a standalone bingo platform.

It is still unclear as to whether 888 Holdings are purchasing all online bingo sites owned by Daub Ltd or just Wink Bingo, but we would have thought for that kind of money all their sites will be included in this deal.

Once the acquisition of Wink Bingo does go through, this will give 888 Holdings a further hold within the online bingo market place. 888 were hit hard when gambling was made illegal in the United States two years ago as were many other sites on the net, so this led them to look for other avenues for gaming online and by the looks of things online bingo has certainly proved to be a success for them.

Play bingo at Wink Bingo here