Yahoo Finance Sunderland bingo entrepreneur scores £400m payday from Tombola sale
A bingo entrepreneur from Sunderland is in line for a payday of more than £400m after his online business was snapped up by the owner of Betfair and Paddy Power.
Flutter Entertainment, the FTSE 100 gambling firm, said it will buy Tombola, an online bingo company, for £402m.
The takeover will net a major windfall for Phil Cronin, Tombola’s founder, and his family, who have controlled the company since it was established 22 years ago.
Mr Cronin will step down from the business after the takeover is completed.
The Cronin family made a name for itself in bingo when Mr Cronin’s father, Frank, transformed a small stationery and printing business into the world’s leading supplier of bingo cards.
After receiving an order for the cards from a local priest for a parish fundraiser, Frank Cronin spotted an opportunity and ramped up the company’s printing capacity so that it supplied most of the UK's bingo and social clubs by the end of the 1970s.
Phil Cronin started his career at his father’s business, Edward Thompson Group, leaving to set up Tombola.
Tombola now runs Britain's biggest bingo site, which it launched in 2006 with The Sun newspaper. The company employs 700 people in Sunderland and Gibraltar, with 80pc of its regulated revenue from the UK, and around 16pc from Italy and Spain.
The company has recorded annual revenue growth of around 25pc over the last five years, and in the year to the end of April, generated around £164m in revenue and £38.5m in earnings. About 400,000 people play on its site every month.
The takeover is subject to approval by the UK competition regulator and is expected to complete early next year.
Flutter pointed to Tombola's move to introduce "both mandatory staking and deposit limits" as a draw, as pressure ramps up on gambling operators to offer less risky bets.
The Government has been reviewing gambling laws and how they could be strengthened to protect vulnerable consumers.
Flutter chief executive Peter Jackson said: "The brand aligns closely with Flutter's safer gambling strategy, a key area of focus for us."
It comes just weeks after Flutter was forced to slash its profit outlook for this year and next due to new betting laws in the Netherlands.
Mr Jackson had said there was "a degree" of the country's authority favouring Dutch betting firms.
The company also took a hit from "customer-friendly" football results during October, costing it £60m in lost profits.
