With ZEAL’s plans to buy Lotto24 in full motion, Nigel Birrell, CEO of Lottoland and also a shareholder of ZEAL, is speaking out. He does not think it’s a good idea for this acquisition to go forward, and he doesn’t believe ZEAL has the right to push ahead.

After the January 18 vote by ZEAL shareholders to move ahead with the reacquisition, Lottoland shared comments with Calvinayre from Birrell, summing up his feelings: “We are disappointed with the result of today’s General Meeting.”

The vote was very close, and Birrell felt that without a greater majority, it did not provide the political capital ZEAL needed to move ahead. He said, “With resolution number two turning out to be very close with only 51% votes in favour and 49% voting against, we do not believe the outcome provides a clear mandate from the shareholders of ZEAL to take the transaction forward. Especially given the fact that without the votes of the Lotto24 shareholders this would not have been approved.”

Lotto24 was formerly a subsidiary of ZEAL, and was spun-off to be its own company in 2012. ZEAL’s CEO, Helmut Becker, has argued that bringing the companies back together would create value for ZEAL shareholders.