Entain has agreed to acquire the technology platform, products and team of Unikrn, a leading esports betting and entertainment media company. These, combined with our capabilities, analytics, regulatory experience, player protection and scale, provide a unique industry first platform to address this exciting and growing market. The acquisition is subject to completion which is expected to happen later this year.

To lead our efforts in driving this new area of growth, we are delighted to announce the appointment of Justin Dellario as our new Head of esports. Justin joins from Twitch, the world’s leading live streaming platform for gamers, and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in both esports content and operational delivery. He will report into Sameer Deen who recently joined as our Chief Strategy Officer and President of New Ventures to help drive our growth into interactive entertainment.

There is also a clear opportunity in the casual mobile gaming market which has grown rapidly in recent years. Within this there are many different games categories a number of which, such as Social Casino, align with our own strategy, our core offering and our capabilities. High growth categories that can drive high levels of acquisition and engagement will further increase our flywheel effects enabling us to grow our customer base, increase retention and drive revenues.

Jette Nygaard-Andersen, Entain’s CEO, commented: ‘Entain has built a powerful platform combining our industry leading technology, people and capabilities that is driving significant growth in our existing markets, including the US, but also enables us to grow into new and emerging markets and opportunities related to our core areas of expertise. Our platform enables us to meet the evolving needs of our customers as we capitalise on the convergence of media, entertainment and gaming and extend into interactive entertainment. All together this means the markets we address have the potential to be several times larger than today.

‘One exciting opportunity is the growing esports skill-based wagering market. We are building the first scalable platform to address this market and I am delighted that Justin Dellario is joining us to lead our growth in this new area.

‘By leveraging the opportunities in front of us, focusing on the customer and expanding our acquisition funnel by creating powerful customer engagement flywheel effects, we have many years of growth ahead that will drive significant incremental value for our stakeholders.’