SharpLink Gaming, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBET) shares fell early Monday. The company, an online performance-based marketing concern serving the U.S. sports betting and iGaming industries, today announced that the Company has acquired a 10% equity stake in U.K.-based Armchair Enterprises Limited, which owns and operates CryptoCasino.com. The acquisition was made for $500,000 in cash, along with a right of first refusal to acquire a controlling interest in Armchair.
SharpLink’s investment in Armchair demonstrates its strategy to become the first Nasdaq-listed company focused on crypto gaming. CEO Rob Phythian stated, “Over the past year, our leadership team and highly engaged Board of Directors have dedicated significant resources and time to identify the best growth opportunities for our Company. Our goal is to strategically leverage our existing performance-based marketing platform and industry relationships to achieve deeper and more lucrative penetration into the digital gaming and sports betting markets.
“Throughout this process, we carefully evaluated more than two dozen compelling opportunities and determined that the combination of market expansion, cost efficiency, security and player demand makes crypto gaming one of the most promising growth opportunities in the online gaming industry today. Furthermore, we believe that the steps we have already taken — and will continue to take — to execute a well-defined plan centered on the exponential growth of crypto gaming, positions SharpLink to become a future leader in this space.
SBET shares dropped four cents, or 9.9%, to 40 cents.
