Sportech poised to end 92-year-old tradition after Canadian gambling firm comes calling

By Ben Martin THE betting company that traces its origins back to when the first football pools business was launched 92 years ago could be bought by a Canadian gambling software firm.

Shares in Sportech surged 11.2pc to 69.625p after the company said it had received a takeover proposal from the Toronto-listed Contagious Gaming.

Any offer would come at a premium to Sportech’s closing share price on Thursday evening of 62.63p and Contagious would pay for a deal in cash and stock, the pools business said. Contagious, with a market capitalisation of 18 million Canadian dollars (£8.9m), is much smaller than Sportech, which was valued at £143.6m yesterday.

The UK company, which also runs sports bars in Connecticut and provides betting technology to the horse-racing industry, is engaged in a long-running £97m battle with the taxman over VAT on its Spot the Ball game, with a hearing scheduled for November. If the company wins its fight with HMRC and Contagious takes Sportech over, its shareholders will receive about half of the money and the rest will go to its new Canadian owner.

Sportech warned investors that there are obstacles to any deal. “The proposal is subject to due diligence, Contagious Gaming raising suitable financing and… receiving a significant level of support for the proposal from Sportech shareholders,” it said.

The first football pools coupons were sold in 1923 by Littlewoods, which was followed by Vernons two years later and Zetters in 1933. Sportech went on to buy all three and rebranded them as The Football Pools.