About this app
About Fire Strike
Merkur has agreed to pay an effective price of €6.19 per SFC share for the stake, representing a substantial premium over recent market valuations.
The premium reflects both the control premium paid to the sellers and Merkur’s valuation for majority ownership.
As Merkur’s acquisition of Casigrangi would grant indirect control over SFC, French regulations require Merkur to launch a simplified mandatory tender offer for the remaining SFC shares it does not already hold.
How to play Fire Strike
An issue raised by Giannis Vasiliadis, director of WBAS, was the limited access to recipients’ banking information. This limited data can hint at suspicious activity but cannot conclusively verify gambling transactions.
Data Protection Commissioner Maria Christofidou said her office had reevaluated a 2022 legal opinion and now recognised a potential legal basis for more granular access to banking information.
Various MPs voiced concerns about the risk of privacy violations in accessing this data, and the potential social stigma around the information being shared.
How to play Fire Strike
Additionally the report cited taxing consumers (in 29% of the 28 markets covered), and banned products (14%), were also propelling growth in illegal gambling. A lack of choice, due to monopolies in place in five markets has also driven the rise.
Players typically play across various verticals, and by imposing restrictions on specific verticals or betting markets, engaged customers will look elsewhere to access these activities.
“If a customer finds black market sites that have all their preferred betting and gaming options, convenience dictates they will transfer a broad range of their expenditure there. Consumer recycling means that banning or restricting key products has a broader distortive impact on the entire market,” the report noted.
