Rank subsidiary, Blue Square, looks to acquire Sporting Options
Friday 20th August 2004
Rank’s online betting arm, Blue Square, is negotiating to take over the betting exchange, Sporting Options. Talks are said to be in advanced stages and announcement to the Stock Exchange is expected next week. If finalized, the deal will mark the first time a bookmaker has bought out a betting exchange.
Sporting Options, which is Britain’s third biggest betting exchange behind Betfair and Betdaq, will be subsumed within Blue Square. The company was a success story for City traders, Robert Byrne and Kevin Griffiths, who raised a million pounds in the year leading up to its launch. Within eighty days the company had moved into profit and was trading with customers in over thirty countries.
Rank is looking to turn Blue Square into a bricks and mortar bookies, and has secured its first license to open a Blue Square branded betting shop next door to London’s Victoria Casino.
