Devilfish Poker Sold For £0.33 Million To Weather Lottery Plc
December 22, 2010 10:29 amDevilfish Gaming plc has just announced it has sold its sole trading subsidiary, Devil Fish Poker Ltd to The Weather Lottery plc for £333,000.
The Weather Lottery plc describes itself on its website as a company with “10 years of business experience in Lotteries and registered with the Gambling Commission as an External Lottery Manager.”
As part of their agreement to acquire Devil Fish Poker, the company agreed to make a cash payment of £40,000 to Devilfish Gaming plc with the £290,000 balance met in Weather Lottery shares. Devil Fish Poker explained that the money would then be used to settle its liabilities and keep it operating while it sought further business opportunities.
Devilfish Gaming plc soon ran into trouble after launching Devil Fish Poker Ltd, as it was unable to acquire the UK’s white-listing approval thus barring it from advertising to its core British market. That combined with a global economic downturn saw Devil Fish Poker turning over £783,353 for the year to June 30th, 2010 with a net loss of £106,331.
However, Devilfish Gaming Plc always maintained there was real value in the brand associated with the UK’s highest earning poker pro Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott. The flamboyant pro has won over $5.8 million from poker since cashing in at his first live tournament in 1993 and his victories include a WSOP bracelet in 2007 at the $2k PLO event.
The value of the brand is a fact not lost on Devil Fish Poker’s new owners, with TWL Chairman Lord Razzall commenting:
“Devil Fish Poker has an established brand name in a sector which is complimentary to the existing gaming operations of TWL. We have a growing database of users in both FCBetz.com and FC Lotto some of whom will we believe wish to take advantage of the DFP products. The Board considers its acquisition at a time when there is still considerable untapped potential for development fits in with our gaming strategy”.