Gambling website backed by Smurfits to float on Aim

A business backed by members of the Smurfit family and a number of Irish investors is to raise €14 million from a flotation by the end of the year, it emerged yesterday.

The UK-based online gambling site Gameaccount confirmed yesterday that it plans to raise £10 million (€14.5 million) by floating on London's Alternative Investment Market (Aim) by the end of the year.

The company is due to appoint advisers this week. A spokesman said that the flotation would go ahead before the end of the year, depending on investors' appetite for the stock.

Dermot Smurfit, nephew of packaging giant Smurfit Kappa chairman, Michael Smurfit, is one of the principal backers.

According to its last annual return to the UK's Companies' House, Dermot Smurfit held 18,980 shares, around 9 per cent of its total issued capital of 201,966 at the end of last November.

Alan Smurfit, with an address in Florida in the US, held 2,457 shares, a little over 1 per cent of the company.

Former Jefferson Smurfit director, Peter Gleeson, held the same amount. Mr Gleeson, who has an address on Shrewsbury Road, Dublin, made close to €30 million when the company went private in 2002. He has invested in a number of projects.

Frank O'Kane, director of engineering services firm, Mercury Holdings, also had 2,457 shares in the company.

Gameaccount's founders, David McDowell and Kevin O'Neal, both with addresses in London, each held about a third of the firm, making them the largest individual shareholders.

Reports yesterday said that Andrew Black, founder of betting exchange Betfair, was also an investor. However, he was not registered as a shareholder when the company made its annual return last November.

Gameaccount operates a website that allows people to play card games, including poker, blackjack and backgammon, on line.

It is the latest in a line of companies that have tried to cash in on a boom in internet gambling sites.

However, some of these firms have lost their gloss after big players in the industry issued profit warnings last month.

Partygaming, valued at €8 billion when it floated earlier this year, had €2.9 billion wiped off its value following a profit warning that it issued in September.