Expekt.com
| Industry | Online Gaming and Online Sportsbook |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999 in Sweden |
| Founder | Christian Haupt and Conny Gesar |
| Headquarters | Sweden |
| Products | Sports betting, Casino, Poker, Bingo |
| Website | www.expekt.com |
Expekt.com Ltd is a pan-European online gaming company with more than 1.8 million registered customers. The main office is in Gzira, Malta and employs 150 people. It offers sports betting, poker, casino games and bingo, as well as pool betting on Supertoto and Superscore. Expekt.com also offers live video streamed sport with Spanish Primera Division, Italian Serie A, Europa League and ATP tennis, including Australian Open and Wimbledon. Expekt.com's site is available in 23 languages and has a wide variety of payment solutions including credit/debit cards.
History
Expekt.com was founded in 1999 by the Swedish entrepreneurs Christian Haupt and Conny Gesar. It was one of the first major online sports betting operators in northern Europe and saw a healthy growth during the first years, especially when poker was launched in 2003. Expekt.com's main markets was, and still is, the Nordics, especially Sweden and Poland.
Poker problems
When Expekt.com changed poker network from Prima to Tain in 2005 the migration caused severe problems due to the limited time-frame imposed, and during almost two weeks Expekt.com lost both customers and reputation as the poker site was down. A year later Expekt.com joined the poker network iPoker and is slowly trying to take back market-shares in the online poker world. In the summer of 2009, Expekt.com signed World Champion Scotty Nguyen as their global poker ambassador to help boost their poker profile in the competition.
Ambassadors
Expekt.com has invested heavily in exclusive ambassadors, like Zibi Boniek in Poland, Fredi Bobic in Germany, Glenn Strömberg in Sweden, Sepp Piontek in Denmark and Jari Rantanen in Finland. Scotty Nguyen is the global poker ambassador and earlier Expekt.com has also worked with Mats Wilander and Egil Olsen. During the African Cup of Nations 2010, Expekt.com signed Roger Milla as ambassador.
Mangas Gaming
During 2008, the gaming industry was flooded with rumors that Expekt.com was up for sale and reports pointed out French gambling group Mangas Gaming as a potential buyer. In March 2009, the transaction was finalized and according to reports, Mangas Gaming paid €125 million for all Expekt.com operations. Mangas Gaming strategy is to create a strong European-wide network of online sports betting and gaming operations.
It owns French based bookmaker Betclic and east-European faced Bet-at-home, and in January 2010, Mangas Gaming announced that it had acquired a majority of the shares of Everest Poker.
Mangas Gaming is co-controlled by Financiere Lov, Stephane Courbit's patrimonial holding company, and Societe des Bains de Mer (SBM), a major Monaco land casino and hotel owner. Isabelle Andres is CEO at Mangas Gaming.
Management
In December 2009, Mangas Gaming announced that Per Widerström, chief executive officer (CEO) at Expekt.com since March 2006, had left the business with immediate effect. Nicolas Béraud, chief operating officer (COO) at parent company Expekt.com, became new interim CEO at Expekt.com with Betclic COO Thomas Winter acting on an interim basis alongside Béraud as COO of Expekt.