Danske Spil to Sell Elite Gaming to Dan-Automater Owner 87KDSL
The transaction was approved at an extraordinary general meeting of Danske Spil on September 16 and still needs clearance from the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority. Dan-Automater’s announcement says completion is expected as soon as possible after the competition authority gives its approval.
Two Danish machine businesses will sit under one owner
Elite Gaming installs and operates land-based prize-paying gaming machines in Denmark. Dan-Automater is active in the same market, with machines placed in restaurants and gaming halls.
87KDSL also has a sister company, Compugame-DAE, which develops and sells gaming machines, spare parts and related services.
Dan-Automater CEO Rasmus Skoubo said the combination is intended to keep the machine business profitable over the longer term and allow the two operations to make better use of their existing strengths.
For Danske Spil, the transaction removes a business that management no longer sees as a close strategic fit. CEO Nikolas Lyhne-Knudsen described Elite Gaming as a healthy operation but said it has “limited strategic coherence” with the rest of the group.
The sale closes a 14-year ownership loop
The ownership has an older link to Erhvervsinvest. Danish competition records show that Danske Spil held 49.9% of Elite Gaming, while the remaining 50.1% was held through Erhvervsinvest-controlled Elite Investment. Erhvervsinvest records 2012 as its exit year from Elite Gaming.
If the new sale clears competition review, Elite Gaming will therefore return under the ultimate ownership of Erhvervsinvest roughly 14 years after that exit – this time alongside Dan-Automater.
Elite Gaming accounts for about 5% of group BSI
Elite Gaming generated DKK137m in H1 BSI, compared with DKK143m in the first half of 2025. By 15M’s calculation, the machine unit represented about 5.3% of Danske Spil’s DKK2.586bn group BSI in the latest six-month period, while its own BSI declined about 4.2% year over year.
The sale will take Danske Spil out of its standalone land-based gaming-machine business. Its core activities remain lotteries, sports betting and online casino.