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About Winter Champions
While Ahlberg explains GiG is experiencing B2B headwinds, he also views the 888Africa deal as an opportunistic one. This is confirmed by Richards, who describes the acquisition as a “targeted, opportunistic move” with “compelling” economics.
In its currently ongoing takeover of Evoke Bally’s Intralot will retain the remaining 20% of 888Africa and will stay active in management.
Ahlberg agrees the €16.4 million valuation is attractive, with a deferred consideration of around €10.4 million that reduces the immediate cash burden.
What is Winter Champions?
The dual approach seeks not only to limit access to gambling content on smartphones but also to provide meaningful alternatives that reduce overall reliance on digital devices.
The KGCC, which operates under the prime minister’s office and oversees gambling supervision and the monitoring of illegal gambling activity, will collaborate with the Gyeonggi education office. There will be policy coordination, student protection and the exchange of educational resources and prevention experts.
The partnership also plans to analyse operational data, develop pilot programmes and construct a model for national deployment.
What is Winter Champions?
“I don’t think the successful studio of the future necessarily has hundreds of people,” he says. “It could be a relatively small group of extremely talented people with great ideas, strong brands and a very good understanding of players, supported by technology that does much of the heavy lifting.”
That would also shift the basis on which studios compete. If sophisticated development capabilities become accessible to a wider range of creators, scale alone becomes less of an advantage.
“It becomes less about how many developers you employ and much more about how creative you are and how well you understand the player,” Curwen says.
