UKbetting buys Rivals Digital Media

Chrysalis and Eckoh Technologies yesterday exited the dot.com world by selling their stakes in the former 365 business, the sports website group and one-time darling of the internet bubble, to UKbetting for £2m.

Rivals Digital Media (RDM) was formed as a joint-venture between Chrysalis and Eckoh from the remnants of 365 Corp and Rivals.net in 2001. It operates football365.com, golf365.com and cricket365.com, as well as planetrugby.com and planetf1.com, and will bring UKbetting 5.5 million new users.

The pair had invested more than £50m in RDM, but it made a loss last year of £1.12m and has only £3,000 in assets.

Chrysalis and Eckoh will each receive £700,000 from UKbetting, about half in cash and half in shares. UKbetting is also repaying a £0.4m loan from Chrysalis to RDM and a further £550,000 loan from Chrysalis to RDM is being cancelled, as is a £250,000 loan from Eckoh. The remaining £600,000 will go to RDM's four directors, who are joining the UKbetting group.