Expekt.com Ltd is a pan-European online gaming

Online gambling

Online gambling, also known as Internet gambling and iGambling, is a general term for gambling using the Internet.-Online poker:Online poker tables commonly offer Texas hold 'em, Omaha, Seven-card stud, razz, HORSE and other game types in both tournament and ring game structures...

 company with more than 1.8 million registered customers. The main office is in Gzira

Gzira

Gżira is a town in the north-eastern coast of Malta between Msida & Sliema, and bordering on Ta' Xbiex, with its famed yacht marina and Embassy Row. The population is approximately 7,100 . The word Gżira means "island" in Maltese, and the town is named after Manoel Island which lies just adjacent...

, Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 and employs 150 people. It offers sports betting

Sports betting

Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome.-United States of America:Aside from simple wagers such as betting a friend that one's favorite baseball team will win its division or buying a football "square" for the Super Bowl, sports betting is...

, poker

Poker

Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...

, casino

Casino

In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...

 games and bingo

Online bingo

Online bingo is the game of bingo played on the Internet. It is estimated that the global gross gaming yield of bingo was US$500 million in 2006, and it is forecasted to grow to $1,000 million by 2010....

, as well as pool betting on Supertoto and Superscore. Expekt.com also offers live video streamed sport with Spanish Primera Division, Italian Serie A

Serie A

Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...

, Europa League and ATP

Association of Tennis Professionals

The Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP was formed in 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the...

 tennis, including Australian Open

Australian Open

The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...

 and Wimbledon. Expekt.com's site is available in 23 languages and has a wide variety of payment solutions including credit/debit cards.

History

Expekt.com was founded in 1999 by the Swedish entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

s Christian Haupt and Conny Gesar. It was one of the first major online sports betting operators in northern Europe

Northern Europe

Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. Northern Europe typically refers to the seven countries in the northern part of the European subcontinent which includes Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and Sweden...

 and saw a healthy growth during the first years, especially when poker was launched in 2003. Expekt.com's main markets was, and still is, the Nordics, especially Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

.

Poker problems

When Expekt.com changed poker network from Prima to Tain in 2005 the migration caused severe problems due to the limited time-frame imposed, and during almost two weeks Expekt.com lost both customers and reputation as the poker site was down. A year later Expekt.com joined the poker network iPoker and is slowly trying to take back market-shares in the online poker world. In the summer of 2009, Expekt.com signed World Champion Scotty Nguyen

Scotty Nguyen

Thuận B. "Scotty" Nguyễn is a Vietnamese American professional poker player who is a five time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, most notably as the winner of the 1998 World Series of Poker Main Event and the 2008 WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship...

 as their global poker ambassador to help boost their poker profile in the competition.

Ambassadors

Expekt.com has invested heavily in exclusive ambassadors, like Zibi Boniek in Poland, Fredi Bobic in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Glenn Strömberg

Glenn Strömberg

Glenn Peter Strömberg is a Swedish former footballer. He won the 1982 UEFA Cup with IFK Göteborg. Apart from Göteborg, he has also played for Benfica and Atalanta. He was voted Swedish footballer of the year, winning Guldbollen 1985. For his majestic way of playing in the midfield he was nicknamed...

 in Sweden, Sepp Piontek in Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 and Jari Rantanen in Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

. Scotty Nguyen is the global poker ambassador and earlier Expekt.com has also worked with Mats Wilander

Mats Wilander

Mats Wilander is a former World No. 1 tennis player from Sweden. From 1982 through 1988, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles , and one Grand Slam men's doubles title...

 and Egil Olsen

Egil Olsen

Egil Roger Olsen , nicknamed Drillo, is a Norwegian association football manager and former Norwegian football player. He is best known as a highly successful coach of the Norwegian national football team. He has since been coach of the Iraqi national football team, his departure from which caused...

. During the African Cup of Nations 2010, Expekt.com signed Roger Milla

Roger Milla

Roger Milla is a retired Cameroonian footballer who played as a striker. He was one of the first African players to be a major star on the international stage...

 as ambassador.

Mangas Gaming

During 2008, the gaming industry was flooded with rumors that Expekt.com was up for sale and reports pointed out French gambling group Mangas Gaming as a potential buyer. In March 2009, the transaction was finalized and according to reports, Mangas Gaming paid €125 million for all Expekt.com operations. Mangas Gaming strategy is to create a strong European-wide network of online sports betting and gaming operations.

It owns French based bookmaker

Bookmaker

A bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds.- Range of events :...

 Betclic and east-European faced Bet-at-home, and in January 2010, Mangas Gaming announced that it had acquired a majority of the shares of Everest Poker.

Mangas Gaming is co-controlled by Financiere Lov, Stephane Courbit's patrimonial

Property

Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...

 holding company

Holding company

A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...

, and Societe des Bains de Mer

Société des bains de mer de Monaco

The Société des Bains de Mer is a company composed mainly of high-end hotels and entertainment in the principality. Notable establishments managed by the company include the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the Monte Carlo Casino and the Hotel de Paris in Monte-Carlo....

 (SBM), a major Monaco

Monaco

Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...

 land casino and hotel owner. Isabelle Pariz is CEO at Mangas Gaming.

Management

In December 2009, Mangas Gaming announced that Per Widerström, chief executive officer

Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

 (CEO) at Expekt.com since March 2006, had left the business with immediate effect. Nicolas Béraud, chief operating officer

Chief operating officer

A Chief Operating Officer or Director of Operations can be one of the highest-ranking executives in an organization and comprises part of the "C-Suite"...

(COO) at parent company Expekt.com, became new interim CEO at Expekt.com with Betclic COO Thomas Winter acting on an interim basis alongside Béraud as COO of Expekt.