Zona de Azar Malta – Ex-BetCity Owners Get More Time in Entain Dispute Defense

Malta.- February 29, 2024 www.zonadeazar.com BetCity’s former owners have until 19 March 2024 to submit their defence in an ongoing dispute with Entain currently being litigated in UK Commercial Court.

The case concerns allegations that former owners and executives of BetCity failed to disclose the existence two KSA non-compliance probes ahead of an €850m sale to Entain in June 2022.
After prompting, the company eventually disclosed the investigations in November 2022, one concerning an AML/CTF breach and the other an advertising violation.

BetCity opted to compensate Entain for the fines in both investigations which stood at €3m for the money laundering penalty and €400,000 for the advertising enforcement action.

However, Entain said the cost of the alleged disclosure failure “far exceeds” the direct cost of the penalties.

According to Entain, this includes the costs of remedying the failures, increased regulatory risk and the subsequent reputational damage.

As such, Entain said in the original 19 January filing it was seeking “significant damages” from BetCity’s former shareholders and executives, including several members of the Singles family. This was first reported by Casino Nieuws.

The defendants have now come to an agreement with Entain’s lawyers to extend the deadline to submit their defence and counterclaim by 4pm on 19 March.
The defence has also requested information from Entain, including how much exactly it is seeking from the ex-BetCity owners.

Entain rebuffs information request
However, Entain argued the defendants are not yet entitled to this information.

It said the reduction in BetCity’s value caused by the disclosure failure at the time of the acquisition will be “determined through reference to expert evidence”.

Altogether, the defendants made 10 different requests for information, all relating to the costs of the damages.

The defendants also challenged the basis of Entain’s claim that the size of the damages would likely exceed the penalties already paid.

In response, Entain said it had conducted an analysis of the effects of the disclosure failures on BetCity’s value.

According to Entain, the defendants were already supplied with a copy of this analysis on 1 February.

Edited by @pererarte   www.zonadeazar.com