Betsson has acquired a 35% stake in TG Lab’s Strive Platform for $6.5m (£4.7m/€5.4m), in a strategic venture aimed at supporting its expansion plans in the North American market.
The acquisition comes as part of a wider partnership with igaming technology provider and developer TG Lab, agreed in Q4 2020. This agreement grants Betsson access to TG Lab’s player account management (PAM) system to support its launch in the US.
Since this partnership was agreed, TG Lab has created Strive, a North American-focused entity encompassing the PAM technology, intellectual property rights and market expertise.
Betsson’s sportsbook will become the first to be integrated with the Strive PAM as part of the acquisition deal.
“This investment is another important milestone in our US entry,” Betsson chief executive Pontus Lindwall said. “The investment will support our B2C launch with the Betsafe brand in Colorado as well as broaden Betsson’s offering to the US market.
“The US market has a limited number of PAMs and sportsbooks that are truly set up for the multi-state regulatory environment and scale. This investment brings together two high quality independent iGaming technologies for the US market.”
Under the agreement, upon Betsson’s launch in the US, planned for H2 2021, the operator will have the option to increase its shareholding in Strive by a further 5% for $1.0m.
Betsson, which acquired the initial stake via its Betsson Perch Investments AB subsidiary, will also grant Strive a convertible shareholder loan facility of $2.5m.
The agreement comes after Betsson this month also purchased a 50% stake in JDP Tech, a software development business that owns a proprietary technology platform for handling payments in Latin America.