Analyst Ralph Garcea says Amaya Gaming is the TSX Venture Tech Stock of the Year

Analyst Ralph Garcea has chosen Amaya Gaming as the TSX Venture Canadian Tech Stock of the Year, and CEO David Baazov as Exec of the Year. Cantech Letter will announce the TSXV finalists this week. This past February, two California senators introduced draft legislation to regulate online gaming in the United States The proposed bill, called the The Internet Gambling Consumer Protection and Public-Private Partnership Act of 2012 proposes to tax internet poker at a rate of 10% of gross revenue.

Canada’s Amaya Gaming (TSXV:AYA), which has been an aggressive consolidator in the space, appears positioned to make a name for itself outside the Canadian border.

Amaya, which was founded in 2004 and IPO’d on the TSX Venture Exchange in July of 2010, has in the past designed electronic table games that allow players to remotely play majong, bingo or horse racing. But the company vaulted to public attention early in 2011 when it secured a license from the Betting Control and Licensing Board of Kenya to operate online gaming. Amaya diversified its reach last year when The company acquired struggling Calgary-based Chartwell Technologies in July for just under $23 million, and followed that with the December pickup of Cryptologic, a company founded in 1995 by brothers Andrew and Mark Rivkin that became one of the world’s largest online gaming platform providers, but was also struggling. Earlier this year, Amaya paid €15m for the Ongame poker network. All this activity has been a boon to Amaya shareholders, who are up nearly 75% this year alone.

Analyst Ralph Garcea, whose firm Northland Capital Partners will soon be acquired by Mackie Research Capital, says Amaya Gaming is his pick for TSXV Tech Stock of the Year for the 2012 Cantech Letter Awards. Garcea detailed the rest of his TSX Venture Exchange picks for Cantech Letter readers today.

Ralph Garcea, TSXV Canadian Tech Stock of the Year

1. Amaya Gaming (TSXV:AYA)

Amaya Gaming is a technology-based gaming solutions provider for the global regulated gaming industry. With the acquisitions of Cadillac Jack, Ongame Networks, Chartwell Technology, and Cryptologic, Amaya’s multi-platform business model delivers solutions to mobile, virtual, and physical gaming environments. We believe the recent acquisitions have provided the scale to drive ~$160M in revenue and ~$60M in EBITDA by the end of 2013
Amaya is now well positioned to capitalize on the potential legalization of online gambling in the US

2. BSM Technologies (TSXV:GPS)

3. C-COM Satellite (TSXV:CMI)

TSXV Executive of the Year

1. David Baazov, Amaya Gaming (TSXV:AYA)

By far, one of the leading visionaries in the online gaming market. He has worked tirelessly, criss-crossing the globe, to put Amaya on the map. With the recent acquisitions (and possibly more to come), David has put together a leading platform and solution offering that leverages the respective strengths of each asset (physical channel and footprint, with over 200 patents and 600+ games)

2. Nicholas Routhier, Sensio (TSXV:SIO)

Although the stock performance has not shown it, Mr. Routhier and Sensio have been busy in 2012 signing licensing deals with Samsung, TCL and Hisense; launching the 3DGO! store and signing a licensing partnership with Wi-LAN

3. Sam Chebib, Nightingale Informatix (TSXV:NGH)

Nightingale has delivered on its organic and acquisition growth strategy in FH113 and is positioned to continue this momentum in FH213 with its higher margin EMR solution and a growing pipeline.

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