Football Community Site Acquired by Sportech

November 6, 2008 (InfoPowa News) — U.K. football pools and online gambling group Sportech plc has announced the purchase of one of the U.K.'s leading football community websites, 4thegame.com, for £600,000.
 
A statement from the company says the acquisition will strengthen the already strong online presence of The New Football Pools, a recently launched venture.
 
With 700,000 unique monthly users and an international customer base, 4thegame.com is an ideal host website to cross sell and market the full suite of Sportech's football games, and will provide cost-efficient football content to the recently relaunched Sportech website footballpools.com.
 
Under the terms laid out in the new service agreement, Fast Web Media, the previous owners of the website, will continue to provide operational and creative expertise to 4thegame.com.
 
Ian Penrose, Chief Executive of Sportech, said: "The acquisition of 4thegame.com is an important element of our strategy to increase the online visibility of The New Football Pools and engage with football fans from around the world. 4thegame has a significant and loyal fan base who are an ideal target market for our suite of football gaming products."
 
Michael Flynn, CEO of Fast Web Media, said: "Sportech is committed to developing and expanding 4thegame.com. We look forward to working with them to build on the current offering and update the existing features and functionality to attract new customers."
 
Sportech additionally announced adjusted pretax profit for the full year ending December 31 to be marginally below the market consensus due to the costs incurred in improving its business.
 
The company said the costs arose from the removal of all "non-football" content from its footballpools.com website, the migration of its casino and poker business to its partners at 888 Holdings Plc, and movement of instant win games to its 888 common platform for launch in January 2009.
 
With many of the challenging operational and financial initiatives now completed, the company remains confident of its future prospects, it said.