Company behind gambling site Bet99 to combine with Kings Entertainment Group

TORONTO — Kings Entertainment Group Inc., the Vancouver-based online gambling company, said it has agreed to an “arm’s length business combination” with the company that controls Bet99, the online casino and sports betting website endorsed by Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews.

The shareholders of the latter company would take effective control of the new entity.

“Our vision for Kings has always been to build leadership positions within each of the regulated jurisdictions that we enter, and this agreement will certainly accelerate that goal within the Canadian landscape and beyond,” chief executive Steve Budin said in the press release.

Bet99 is run by BQC Consulting Gmbh, the Swiss subsidiary of Toronto-based Sports Venture Holdings Inc., which also owns a numbered company in Ontario that has applied for a licence from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario to market BET99.CA to Ontario residents, according to the press release.

Kings Entertainment will issue shares to Sports Venture’s owners that value Kings shares at 21 cents each, a 13.5 per cent premium over their market value when the agreement was announced on May 24.

Jared Beber, chief executive of Sports Venture Holdings and Bet99, will run the merged company, if shareholders and regulators approve the deal. Sports Venture shareholders would control about 87 per cent of the merged company.

Budin would run Kings Entertainment’s Lottokings brand and take an advisory role at the new parent company.