Member Article

Liverpool firm Sportech buys Data Tote

Liverpool football pools company Sportech has bought the greyhound betting specialist Data Tote for £3.1m.

Sportech, which has its headquarters in Walton, says the deal will strengthen its position as one of the world’s biggest providers of betting technologies and services.

DataTote of Bristol runs betting systems at racecourses including Bangor-on-Dee and Chester, where it operates the ChesterBet service.

It recently started a relationship with Coral to supply a range of sports pools software and services.

Once the deal is complete, Sportech will exclusively provide betting services to 41 of the 43 greyhound tracks in the UK and Ireland.

For the year to June, Data Tote reported a pre-tax profit of £200,000 on turnover of £2.2m.

In a statement, Sportech said: “Sportech will exclusively provide betting services to 41 of the 43 greyhound tracks in the UK and Ireland. The acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing in its first full year of ownership.

Data Tote’s management team will remain in place with CEO Edwin Osborne taking on additional responsibilities within Sportech’s European tote racing business.

Ian Penrose, chief executive of Sportech, said: “I am delighted that Sportech has acquired a highly innovative organisation with a talented management team and a wide European customer base.

“This complementary business will strengthen and augment our global operations and widen our distribution in Europe.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .