GiG Raises €8.5M to Buy 80% of 888AFRICA From Evoke for €16.4M

Gaming Innovation Group is buying its way back into the consumer gambling business. The Malta-based iGaming technology supplier has agreed principal terms to acquire 80% of 888AFRICA from evoke for approximately €16.4 million, funded by an €8.5 million fundraising it announced and completed within hours on 2026年8月26日.

The deal, struck with evoke subsidiary Virtual Emerging Entertainment Limited, hands GiG control of what the company describes as a cash-generative, profitable, fast-growing B2C operator across multiple African markets. The consideration splits into an initial payment of roughly €6 million and a deferred consideration of around €10.4 million. The remaining 20% of 888 Africa Limited stays with the founders, who remain active in managing the business.

The acquisition is agreed but not closed. GiG’s initial announcement states the transaction is subject to approvals and the signature of a share purchase agreement: the stage where the parties have settled the commercial terms but the definitive contract and any required sign-offs are still to come.

How GiG Funded the Deal in a Single Day

GiG raised the money through a directed share issue paired with convertible loans, and by the end of the same day it confirmed both legs had closed.

The equity leg placed new shares, represented by Swedish depository receipts, at SEK 1.725 each to existing shareholders. The buyers included the company’s two largest shareholders, the MJ Foundation and ZJ Foundation, and chief executive Richard Carter, raising €2.5 million. The issue expands GiG’s share count to 176,907,744 and dilutes existing depository receipt holders by roughly 9%.

The debt leg brought in €6 million through two-year convertible loans carrying a 15% annual interest rate, with Carter among the lenders alongside Myrild AS and Nalavio Limited. A quarter of the loan principal can convert into shares every six months, at a price set 10% below the volume-weighted average trading price over the ten days before each conversion notice. Interest is payable semi-annually and the principal falls due at the two-year maturity.

GiG’s board said it chose a directed issue (new shares sold to selected investors rather than offered first to all existing holders) because it could be completed quickly, at lower cost, and fast enough to secure the 888AFRICA opportunity. The fundraising cash covers the initial €6 million payment, with the rest for general corporate purposes. One detail in the completion notice matters: the share subscriptions are conditional on the 888AFRICA acquisition actually completing.

The Deal’s Numbers and What GiG Expects After Closing

• Total consideration: approximately €16.4 million for 80% of 888AFRICA
• Initial payment: approximately €6 million
• Deferred consideration: approximately €10.4 million
• Fundraising total: €8.5 million — €2.5 million in shares at SEK 1.725, €6 million in convertible loans
• Convertible loan terms: two years, 15% annual interest, conversion at a 10% discount
• Pro forma outlook: combined revenue of €44–48 million and adjusted EBITDA of €5–7 million for FY 2026

That final figure is GiG’s own projection, and it comes with a stated assumption: it counts a full contribution from 888AFRICA for the fourth quarter of 2026, meaning the company expects the deal to close in time to consolidate the operator’s results before year-end. The €16.4 million price tag also implies a total value of roughly €20.5 million for the whole of 888AFRICA.

A B2B Supplier Buys a B2C Operator

The acquisition reverses the strategic direction that created GiG Software in its current form. The company’s own materials describe it as a pure B2B iGaming technology business, a supplier of platform, sportsbook, sweepstakes and AI tools licensed in more than 30 regulated jurisdictions, built to serve other operators rather than run consumer brands itself. GiG’s investor boilerplate repeats that identity: a B2B technology company whose proprietary tech powers partners worldwide.

Buying 888AFRICA puts a consumer-facing, revenue-generating betting and gaming operation back inside the group. GiG is framing the move through the numbers rather than the strategy shift: it points to the target’s profitability and cash generation, and to the combined revenue and EBITDA figures it expects to report for 2026. The deal also plants GiG in African regulated markets, a geography absent from its current footprint of Malta, Spain, the UK, Sweden, Brazil, Canada and the Philippines.

Evoke Keeps Selling Pieces of the Business

For the seller, the 888AFRICA disposal is the latest step in a sustained effort to simplify the group and raise cash. Evoke’s shareholders this month backed an all-share takeover by Bally’s and Intralot, a vote Gaming.net covered as the buyers’ liquidity pressures deepened. That followed a half-year in which evoke held revenue flat while a £46 million duty increase cut into profit.

Selling an 80% stake in a profitable African operator for €16.4 million — while leaving the founders in place with the remaining fifth — fits the pattern of a group trimming assets ahead of its own change of control. For GiG, the same transaction moves the company from technology supplier to part-owner of a consumer operator, with the fourth-quarter consolidation of 888AFRICA’s results the first test of what the combined group looks like on paper.