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Azerion successfully completes its business combination with EFIC1
Azerion Holding B.V., a high-growth, profitable, digital entertainment and media company, and European FinTech IPO Company 1 B.V. (“EFIC1”), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) listed on Euronext Amsterdam, have successfully completed their business combination on 1 February 2022.
As part of the completion of the business combination, the legal form of the combined company has been converted into a limited company (naamloze vennootschap) and it has been renamed Azerion Group N.V. (“Azerion Group”). The first day of trading on Euronext Amsterdam under the new name of Azerion Group’s shares and warrants will be on 2 February 2022 (today) under the new ticker symbols AZRN and AZRNW, respectively.
The business combination received the support of EFIC1’s shareholders, with more than 95% of the votes cast at EFIC1’s extraordinary general meeting held on 31 January 2022 (the “EGM”) approving the business combination.
The completion of the business combination supports Azerion Group in its ambitions to become a global digital entertainment and media powerhouse. The business combination furthermore provides for a strong complementary partnership accelerating future value creation for all stakeholders through continued investments in Azerion Group’s growth, both organically and through M&A. Azerion Group expects this listing to create a new long-term supportive shareholder base, permit Azerion Group to incentivise the existing and future management team and senior staff and continue to attract high calibre individuals.
The business combination resulted in approximately €93 million of gross total primary cash proceeds, including approximately €70 million of funds from the EFIC1 escrow account (net of negative interest and after effectuation of the share repurchase arrangement) complemented by a sponsor and co investor commitment of €23.15 million. With the completion of the business combination, Azerion Group received approximately €56 million of net primary cash proceeds (net of transaction costs and expenses), which will be used to continue to pursue value-accretive acquisitions (with Azerion having a strong acquisition track record and a broad pipeline of potential targets), and to further invest in organic growth initiatives (such as new games and features, platform investments, etc.) as well as general corporate purposes.
Immediately after completion of the business combination and the related restructuring steps (including the cancellation of 31,228,299 ordinary shares that were repurchased by EFIC1 from its shareholders), the issued share capital of Azerion Group is as follows:
1
Public
Type of security #¹
Ordinary Shares (excl. treasury) 111,483,296
Ordinary Shares in treasury² 70,078,452
Total Ordinary Shares 181,561,748
Capital Shares 22
Conditional Special Shares 1,152,886
Warrants³ 12,736,605
Please see section 6.4. “Description of Securities” in the EFIC1 Shareholders Circular dated 13 December 2021 for a description of the classes of securities of Azerion Group.
1. Excluding any conditional and unconditional option rights and Founder Warrants existing at the date of this press release, which in aggregate entitle the holders to receive up to a maximum of 24,160,245 Ordinary Shares. 2. The Ordinary Shares in treasury can be used for acquisitions, exercise of warrants and option rights and other general funding purposes.
3. The outstanding Warrants listed on Euronext Amsterdam at the date of this press release entitle the holders to receive up to 12,736,605 Ordinary Shares.
Immediately after completion of the business combination, the ownership percentages of Ordinary Shares are as follows:
Shareholder % Ordinary Shares⁴
Principion Holding B.V.⁵ 74.3%⁶
Azerion former depositary receipt holders 7.5%
Azerion former stock appreciation rights holders 4.0%⁷
Former EFIC1 converted special shares holders 5.9%
Other Shareholders 8.3%
Total 100.0%
Based on Azerion Group’s information. Actual share ownership percentages and regulatory filings and notifications of ownership percentages may differ.
4. Excluding treasury shares as well as any conditional and unconditional option rights and Founder Warrants existing at the date of this press release, which in aggregate entitle the holders to receive up to a maximum of 24,160,245 Ordinary Shares.
5. An entity controlled by Azerion’s co-founders and co-CEOs.
6. Including shares held for settlement of future acquisition-related earn out and other obligations. 7. Excluding shares held for settlement of future acquisition-related earn out and other obligations.
Atilla Aytekin, co-founder and co-CEO of Azerion says: “Today marks an important step for Azerion, and we are excited to finally enter the public markets and continue to grow and advance our platform whilst raising our profile amongst our customer and partner groups and talented workforce globally. We are proud to achieve this important milestone, and we look forward to our next growth phase and future
2
Public
as a public company. I am grateful to the entire Azerion team for all their hard work, which has brought us to this pivotal moment, and for the dedicated support of our partner EFIC1.”
Martin Blessing, former Chief Executive Officer of EFIC1, adds: “The journey of our SPAC EFIC1 comes to a successful end while the exciting journey of Azerion as a listed company starts now. The whole EFIC1 team thanks its shareholders for their support. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Azerion over the long term and wish the company, its founders, employees and shareholders success as they continue their impressive growth story.”
To celebrate the completion of the business combination, the management team of Azerion Group will ring the opening bell at Euronext Amsterdam at 09.00 CET on 2 February 2022. A live stream of the event and replay can be accessed via this link.
Advisers
Credit Suisse Bank (Europe), S.A. acted as capital markets adviser, Hogan Lovells International LLP acted as legal adviser and ABN AMRO Bank N.V acted as financial adviser to EFIC1.
N.M. Rothschild & Sons Limited acted as financial adviser, Stibbe N.V. acted as legal adviser, and Citigroup Global Markets Europe AG and Jefferies GmbH as capital markets advisers to Azerion.
ABN AMRO (acting in cooperation with ODDO BHF SCA), ING Bank N.V. and Pareto Securities AB acted as co-capital markets advisers to EFIC1, and Clifford Chance LLP acted as legal adviser to the capital markets advisers.
Liquidity Provider
As from 2 February 2022, Azerion Group will enter into a liquidity provider agreement pursuant to which ABN AMRO Bank N.V. will act as liquidity provider for the trade in listed shares of Azerion Group.

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PSG want to be the club of the new generation — and gaming has to be a part of it!
Reading Time: 3 minutes
esport-news.co.uk recently sat down with PSG’s brand and business development Nadia Benmokhtar. She spoke about how PSG’s investment into eSports has already seen massive engagement in Asia, how they plan to be a part of the new generation through eSports and how they can diversify their audience.
If you are to use any of the content below, please link to https://esports-news.co.uk/ or the following article, where you can find the full interview: https://esports-news.co.uk/2025/10/20/psg-esports-interview-why-football-clubs-invest
Highlights from the inteview:
- “At PSG, we want to be the club of the new generation — and when you say new generation, gaming has to be part of it.”(Nadia on why esports is central to PSG’s brand identity.)
- “When we entered esports, we didn’t just want to do FIFA. We wanted to be present in major games with big audiences.”(On PSG’s bold approach to expanding beyond traditional football titles.)
- “We partner with people who understand the scene — Vitality and Talon are not just teams, they’re real brands.”(On building authentic, long-term collaborations in esports.)
- “Esports allows us to diversify our audience, expand globally, and connect with communities that might not start as football fans but can still become PSG fans.”(On the club’s goal of global fan engagement through gaming.)
- “We started with esports for credibility, but now we’re exploring the entire gaming universe — from mobile titles to digital experiences like Roblox.”(On PSG’s next phase of gaming innovation.)
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PSG are using gaming to be a part of the new generation
“The goal with eSports is to grow the audience across different touchpoints, increase the brand exposure, and also diversify that audience because we want to target people that are not especially football fans at the beginning. But with esports, you can create a different kind of connection. We know that it’s a very engaged market. It’s also a way to target different territories. If you look at PSG, as an example, the French League is not very visible in Asia. So you can say that through esports, you will find a different way to connect with this type of audience. So it’s really part of the club strategy. So first, we are a multi-club sport. We have football, of course, men’s football, but we also have women’s football, handball, judo, and esports is really considered as a sports section in the club. But for sure, we aim to be at PSG, the club of the new generation. That’s our brand positioning. And when you say new generation, of course, gaming should be part of it.”
Brand recognition in Asia was key
“Asia has been one of the key territories for us since launch. We had an important partnership on the game Dota 2 with a Chinese company, LGD. So we had a very successful team with LGD, but at the end, Dota became a game very costly and to us it didn’t make sense to just spend millions in player salaries with no return on investment. With LGD, it was a new partner with a team that is already very big, and you just enter and do a big, big push. With Talon, the story was a bit different because we really grew together.”
PSG have already seen a great return on their eSports investments
“It depends on what kind of return you want. The initial objective was not pure revenue; it was more exposure. So if you look at brand exposure, fan engagement, brand coolness, yes, for sure, the return is there. If you look at the finance, not yet, but I think it will come. And it’s also a way to link it with the future strategy. So we really feel that we are now only at the beginning of the story when it comes to PSG and gaming. We entered through esports and I think that was great because that gives us also credibility now to speak about all the other verticals.”
PSG want fans of the club, not just their football teams
“If you can convert an esports fan into a football fan, a PSG fan, it’s cool. But I think what we want is to have a PSG fan. And if you are a fan of the club because you are a fan of our League of Legends team, that’s enough for me. I’m happy to have you in my base. And our whole job is to offer them what they want as an esports fan. That’s why we have a lot of work internally at the moment about the database, where the fans are, who they are, and what they are expecting from us. If you are a young League of Legends fan based in Hong Kong and you love PSG thanks to esports, and you are just expecting us to be able to sell you an esports jersey in Hong Kong, which is not the case now, we will try to develop this to be able to make you happy.”
The post PSG want to be the club of the new generation — and gaming has to be a part of it! appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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TrueLayer to Acquire Zimpler, Creating a European Pay by Bank Powerhouse
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TrueLayer, Europe’s leading Pay by Bank network, today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Zimpler, the fastest growing Pay by Bank network in the Nordics. The acquisition will bring together two of Europe’s most innovative Pay by Bank providers, further strengthening TrueLayer as a formidable force in the European payments industry.
This acquisition marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of Pay by Bank across Europe. By expanding TrueLayer’s pan-European network and deep expertise in payment technology with Zimpler’s strong position in the Nordic market, TrueLayer will be uniquely positioned to further accelerate the shift from legacy card payments to smarter, faster, and more secure payments via Pay by Bank.
The acquisition is another clear step forward for TrueLayer in its mission to build a powerful alternative to legacy payments in Europe, fostering greater competition, innovation and value for businesses and their consumers.
With some of the highest adoption rates of account-to-account (A2A) payments anywhere in the world, the Nordic region has been a proving ground for Pay by Bank. By acquiring Zimpler, TrueLayer will have more than 20 million users and will add coverage across key markets such as Sweden, Finland, and will add additional A2A capabilities through the Swish payment rail integration. This significantly strengthens TrueLayer’s pan-European network, accelerating the shift to smarter, safer, and more cost-effective payments.
Founded in 2012 by Johan Friis and Kristofer Ekman Sinclair, Zimpler has grown rapidly to become a Pay by Bank leader in the Nordics. TrueLayer is proud to welcome Zimpler’s founders and shareholders on this journey – joining the likes of Stripe, Northzone, and Tiger Global in backing its mission to transform the way the world pays.
“I am excited to welcome the Zimpler team to TrueLayer,” said Francesco Simoneschi, Co-founder and CEO of TrueLayer. “We’ve long admired their progress, and we’re excited to add such an incredible group of builders and payment experts to the TrueLayer team We’re not just expanding our footprint in the Nordics – we’re combining talent, technology, and scale to accelerate Pay by Bank adoption across the continent, and further strengthening Pay by Bank as a force of disruption that is changing how the world pays.”
“Joining forces with TrueLayer is a fantastic opportunity to build the leading Pay by Bank provider in Europe” said Johan Strand, CEO of Zimpler. “TrueLayer has a proven track record of innovation and a powerful network. Our combined strengths will allow us to offer an even more compelling proposition to the market. Joining TrueLayer will enable us to reach new heights and drive the next wave of growth in the industry. At the same time, we remain firmly anchored in Sweden, with our local licence and expertise ensuring continuity for our customers.”
The post TrueLayer to Acquire Zimpler, Creating a European Pay by Bank Powerhouse appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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SPORTRADAR AWARDED UNITED ARAB EMIRATES LICENSE
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Sportradar Group AG (NASDAQ: SRAD) has been granted a gaming-related vendor license from the United Arab Emirates’s General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA), an independent entity of the UAE Federal Government with exclusive jurisdiction to regulate, license, and supervise all commercial gaming activities.
The license, operational with immediate effect, affords Sportradar the opportunity to provide its products and services to licensed operators.
Sportradar looks forward to bringing its 20+ year expertise and proprietary sports technology to operators and clients in the region.
The post SPORTRADAR AWARDED UNITED ARAB EMIRATES LICENSE appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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