According to reports Genting reached an agreement with LeoVegas to purchase its subsidiary Authentic Gaming, for €15m ($16.7m) on a debt-free basis.

Through the deal, Authentic Gaming will continue to operate independently while Genting supports its expansion, utilising the supplier’s in-club streaming technologies for live casino.

After completion, Genting MD Jeremy Taylor spoke with Gambling Insider about the expected value of the live casino market and what drew the operator to the deal.

Why did Genting choose to purchase Authentic Gaming rather than developing technology in-house?

Authentic has been innovating and developing technologies in this space for the past four years. Clearly by acquiring them, we are able to immediately benefit from those years of technical development and experience.

What are Authentic Gaming’s most desirable qualities and how does this fit into Genting’s long-tem plan as a whole?

Authentic is a young, technology-driven business with a strong and experienced team that has a track record of innovating in this space. Genting is already uniquely positioned to lead the way in live casino because of our ability to bring together our digital platform and our global estate of casinos. With the acquisition of Authentic, we now have the technological capabilities within our business too.

Importantly though, we will continue to work with other partners in the space where they can better serve our specific requirements across different markets, technologies, games and experiences. Authentic will continue to operate independently, with us supporting and investing in its ongoing innovation and development.

Were acquisitions like this always the plan for Genting?

Growing our live casino offering is a key element of our long-term strategy. It is estimated the live casino sector will be worth in the region of €2.5bn in Europe alone and it is our view Genting is uniquely placed to capitalise on the opportunity it presents. We have therefore been committed to ensuring we offer the greatest choice and best possible experience for all our customers choosing to play live casino with us; this acquisition is another sign of that ongoing commitment.

We will always look at opportunities to scale our business efficiently and effectively; but of course we are very particular about how we do this and who with. They need to be the right fit from a strategy, culture, people and product point of view. Authentic ticked all those boxes.

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