Betsson

History

Betsson AB can trace its roots back to 1963, and the foundation of AB Restaurang Rouletter by Bill Lindwall and Rolf Lundström, later renamed Cherryföretagen AB (Cherry), which provided slot machines to restaurants in Sweden. Cherry acquired a minority share of Net Entertainment in 1998, which was a company co-founded with Investment AB Kinnevik, tasked with developing online gaming solutions. The rest of the shares in Net Entertainment held by Kinnevik was acquired by Cherry in 2000, making Kinnevik the largest shareholder of Cherry in the process. In 2003, after the return of Pontus Lindwall (son of Bill Lindwall), as the CEO of Cherry, the company bought into Betsson (founded by Henrik Bergquist, Anders Holmgren and Fredrik Sidfalk), which had a gaming licence in England at that time, and later acquired a licence in Malta. In 2006, Cherryföretagen changed its name to Betsson and the traditional gaming operation in the business sector of Cherry merged to become a new group, Cherryföretagen, which later shortened the name back to Cherry.

In 2011, the company acquired all of the shares in the Betsafe Group for SEK 292 M. The aim of the acquisition was to increase Betsson's market presence and enable continued growth. The acquisition grew Betsson's number of customers to approximately 419,000 — surpassing Unibet in the number of active players. That same year Betsson signed an agreement with a Chinese state-owned company regarding the development of joint-owned gaming operations.

Ulrik Bengtsson became CEO of Betsson in March 2016 following Pontus Lindwall, who stayed on as chairman of the board. Bengtsson stepped down as CEO on 4 September, 2017 with Pontus Lindwall again taking the reins and Patrick Svensk appointed chairman of the Board after Pontus.

In March 2017, Betsson completed its £26 million acquisition of NetPlay TV's assets, adding Jackpot247, SuperCasino and Vernons to its European gaming multi-brand portfolio. In February 2020, Betsson acquired Gaming Innovation Group B2C assets.

In May 2021, Betsson obtaining two licenses from the Hellenic Gaming Commission for their brand. In 2021, it was announced that Betsson will be launching in Mexico through a partnership with local company Big Bola Casinos.