The eight executives of Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) have been granted options to buy up to a total of 1,700,000 shares in the company by its Board of Directors. 

Identified as ‘key employees’, the executives – all of whom are also detailed as a ‘primary insider’ of the gaming services firm – will be able to purchase shares at NOK 22, granted under the option plan approved by the Annual Meeting of Shareholders in May 2019.

All options are exercisable with 20% after 1 January 2023, with this rising to 30% after 1 January 2024 and 50% after 1 January 2025, with the expiration date of all options set at 31 December 2027. 

Additionally, a condition of the grant means that all of the incumbent executives must remain employees of GiG at the time of any share purchase.

The grant will leave a total of 3,420,000 options in GiG outstanding out of the platform and marketing services provider’s 150,000,000 shares in addition to 96,675,626 which are outstanding. 

Each of the eight executives has been given the option to purchase 30,000 shares under the terms of the grant, with CEO Richard Brown securing 110,000 options to buy shares, currently holding 121,000.

The executive who will hold the most options is CIO Chris Aimes with 210,000 – currently holding zero shares – whilst CCO Ben Aimes, who currently owns the most shares at 1,907,146, has secured 60,000 options. 

Also gaining 60,000 options are Chief People Officer Claudia Ginex, General Counsel Claudia Caruana, Chief Marketing Officer and Managing Director of GiG Media Jonas Warrer and Group CFO Tore Formo. These four board members currently hold zero, 100, 400,886 and 458,167 shares respectively. 

Finally, CFO Justin Psaila has been awarded 132,000 options to purchase, whilst he currently holds 2,100 shares in the Nasdaq and OSE-listed gaming group. 

The development is the second major update in relation to GiG’s public listing this year, with the firm having hinted at the possibility of a three-year senior secured floating bond issue of at least SEK 425 million (€40m) later in 2022, subject to all market conditions.

These investment decisions come off the back of a strong trading performance for GiG over 2021, with the group’s Q3 reports showing a 20% year-on-year revenue increase to €17 million (2020: €14.2m) whilst EBITDA increased by 67% to €5.3 million (2020: €3.2m).