The Weather Lottery appoints former GameAccount chief as COO

UK gaming operator The Weather Lottery (TWL) has appointed former GameAccount CEO and Betfair marketing director Kevin Dale as its new chief operating officer following the company’s acquisition of Isle of Man-based payment processing business Sormelle.

Dale will receive 324,895,331 ordinary shares in TWL valued at 0.1p each, equivalent to £422,364 for Sormelle which offers payment solutions through its wholly-owned subsidiary Pay Corporation.

The Isle of Man-based business was incorporated in April last year, and is currently generating monthly fee revenues of £20,000, having reached break-even point.

TWL has also finalised a loan agreement with a consortium of private investors for £250,000 to help fund the company’s working capital requirements following the deal.

The acquisition is designed to extend TWL's payment processing capabilities with a better range of support tools and technologies for gaming and non-gaming customers.

As a result of the deal, The Weather Lottery is to hold a general meeting for shareholders on October 10th to vote on a proposal to change the company’s name to Boxhill Technologies plc.

The new name is described by the board as better reflecting “the company’s diversified activities within the software, lottery, gaming and leisure sectors.”

Plans to diversify into the payment solutions industry were announced in May this year alongside the acquisition of another Isle of Man-based company, gaming software provider Poseve Limited for £350,000. Poseve is to be rebranded during Q3 this year.

TWL chairman Lord Tim Razzall commented: "We continue to pursue opportunities in the gaming and related online payment space and the acquisition of Sormelle provides us with a broader range of services that will directly help our existing businesses take money online securely and easily, but also brings an opportunity to supply payment services to other e-businesses both in the UK and overseas.”

Lord Razzall also hailed Dale’s appointment, describing him as having “a proven track record of rolling out major products in the gaming and related sectors.”

Prior to founding Sormelle, Dale spent four years as CEO of GameAccount Global Ltd, leaving in 2010. Before joining the skill games developer he served as marketing director for Sportingbet and Betfair, spending two years with each of the operators.

Dale will serve under MediaCorp chairman Phil Jackson, who was appointed chief executive in May this year.
 
Shares in The Weather Lottery plc (AIM:TWL) are currently trading at 0.16 pence per share in London this morning.