The Chief Executive of the online gambling group has acquired 30 milliom shares at 41p per share. The purchase cost Lanir £12.3m and takes his stake to 95.6m shares, equivalent to 32.6% of the issued share capital of Empire Online.
In other news, spread betting firm IG group added 6% to 282.25p after analysts increased their recommendation from neutral to overweight following a meeting with the company’s new Chief Executive, Tim Howkins.
“We believe strong demand for financial spread betting and contracts for difference will continue to drive earnings upgrades,” said Bridgewell.
IG generated some 90 per cent of last year\’s income from financial products, with the rest coming from sports betting. Of the financial products sales, 74 per cent were from the UK.
Howkins said he plans to build on operations in continental Europe and to break into the US market, where the company is searching for partners, teams or operations to buy.
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