Canadian esports and igaming company Itema has received an online gaming licence from the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission.

The acquisition of an Isle of Man gambling licence is the last condition for Itema’s acquisition of Livestream Gaming, the parent company of esports betting firm Loot.Bet.

Agreed last month, the transaction saw TSXV and ITMSF-listed Itema acquire all of the issued and outstanding securities Livestream’s capital for a total consideration of $14.75 million.

The transaction consisted of $8 million in cash, $4 million by the issuance of a secured vendor take back note of Intema bearing 12% interest from the date of any default and the issuance of 6,470,588 common shares of Intema.

Livestream securities holders will be paid an additional £3 million in cash subject to the achievement of three requirements – generation of minimum gross gaming revenue of $7.5 million in the 12 moths following the closing date and a further £11.25 million during the 13 to 24 month period after the aforementioned date. 

Laurent Benezra, President and CEO of Intema, said: “We are finally at the last stage of the Livestream acquisition and will be closing the transaction any day now. While the process has taken longer than expected, 

“Loot.bet is a major online gaming platform and a key part of Intema’s growth plans. Throughout the acquisition period, we have been working hard in parallel to build our esports and igaming ecosystem, and the addition of Loot.bet will accelerate our progress on that front significantly.”

Moving forward, Itema plans to invest a minimum of $6 million to the operations of Livestream over a period of two years following the closing date of the acquisition.

By acquiring Livestream’s Loot.Bet subsidiary, Itema has gained control of a Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) member enterprise providing titles such as League of Legends, DOTA 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), Call of Duty, Rocket League, Overwatch, PUBG, FIFA, Valorant and King of Glory, supported by PandaScore.