Pearl Lagoon

How to play Pearl Lagoon

But, as Robinson warns, the opportunity to enter Africa doesn’t come without challenges.

“It’s profitable, it’s growing and it was for sale from a distressed vendor,” he says. “That combination rarely appears in regulated Europe, where scaling a B2C brand means paying up for customers against Flutter and Entain on thin margins.

“Africa isn’t saturated, but I wouldn’t call it easy either. Betway and the local incumbents are well dug in. The difference is that you’re competing for a market that’s still forming, at a fraction of the acquisition cost, and the operating margin is there if you get the payments and the product right. The risk is regulatory and currency rather than competitive.”

How to play Pearl Lagoon

Numbers have remained steady a year on, and in H1 this year, various markets were hailed as core growth drivers for the business, including Australia, New Zealand, Spain and the UK.

Meanwhile, cost-saving efforts have seen retail shops and operational roles cut this year. And the group has chosen to exit its CEE business and sell off a significant share.

In August newly appointed CFO Michael Snape said the move was expected to de-lever, unlock and return capital to shareholders.

What is Pearl Lagoon?

But the groundwork for my own thing had already been laid, as did the actual global backdrop for speeding up what I was already predicting was going to happen anyway. So I focused up and got it started. I still wrote for CalvinAyre.com though, which actually hung on, to my pleasant surprise.

Meanwhile, EGI continued to grow and a year later, meaning now, it’s taking off. I’m thinking at this point I really have to put all my focus on EGI and probably let go of my column, but I liked it too much because Bill allows freedom of expression, not to be taken for granted, especially not in this censorific world.

So just around the time my subscription base is starting to take off and I’m wondering whether I should focus on my own stuff entirely and drop everything else, knowing the End is Near anyway, I get a call from Bill, saying that CalvinAyre.com (will no longer publish gambling news).