Welcome to today's sit down with Wicket Gaming, where we have invited Wicket Gaming CEO, Eric de Basso, and the CEO of Wegesrand, Thorsten Unger. The background, of course, being the previously communicated letter of intent where Wicket Gaming declares its ambition to acquire Wegesrand in this entity. We will, of course, introduce Thorsten a bit later, but first of all, Eric, from your point of view, the main benefits with this acquisition for Wicket's shareholders, where do you see it?
To some extent, I think it's very important that we understand what Wegesrand is, what kind of company it is. First of all, sometimes the companies that are out there can be visualized by understanding the entrepreneur behind it. Thorsten Unger has a long experience of being an entrepreneur within the game segment. I would add at least what I've known 15 years plus maybe, that's where Thorsten has been working with the gaming industry. This kind of gives an idea of what we are acquiring. We're not only acquiring a company in Germany, we are also looking at some very important factors here, which is know-how, which we believe Thorsten Unger actually brings to the table. As a company, Wegesrand is an educational, I would say it's a provider of educational solutions.
Okay? They also do have other companies within the structure, such as Linked Dimensions, which is a game development studio. Linked Dimensions is actually one of the companies that are helping us to finalize our Cricket Manager game. Here we go. We see that we have a company that not only works as an educational provider, but they also do have a game development studio. The third company here, which is worth mentioning, is Unger & Fiedler, which is a graphic studio. They are also working with our Cricket Manager game. We have been working with Wegesrand for at least six months. We know what they can, we have seen what they have done, and we have gotten to learn everybody inside this group, and we are pretty happy about it.
The fact that we are bringing Thorsten Unger to our management board, that's also very exciting for us. I would say one thing that's worth mentioning is that Thorsten was the former CEO of the Association of the German Games Industry. It kind of tells us what kind of person and what kind of company we're bringing to the table.
The deal is communicated as a letter of intent. What steps are needed to complete the transactions in the end?
Well, a due diligence is a standard format today when it comes to an acquisition or a merger. What we are doing right now is that we have already activated the due diligence process, and it should take no more than two months according to our lawyers and our financial advisor. That's where we stand today. They're already activated.
Before turning to Thorsten, can you just explain how you see the synergies behind these companies and how you intend to extract them?
Well, first of all, Wegesrand as a group, through its entities already have a number of its own IPs, meaning that they are already created, for example, a number of games, such as Tank Operations. We know that. We know they are working on Cathedral. We know they have the Magellan, also, which is an IP. Also to be mentioned is Captain Hogg and his friends. So Wegesrand as a group has, not only being a service provider, they're also a game producer. If you have that knowledge, we see a number of potential synergies here. Okay? We know they have a AAA graphic studio, art design studio. We have a game platform where we want to scale it up with a number of games in the future. So.
We know that they have done a remarkably good job already with the Cricket Manager, so it makes sense that they will help us with our second title, the third title, the fourth title. Okay? That's one of the synergies we actually see. Linked Dimensions is a game design studio. Of course, that will benefit us when we do our next titles. We know that they also have games at Wegesrand that has a high potential. To that extent, we can help them to finalize them and move them out to the market. We see a number of potential synergies where we can actually land in a future revenue stream. That's the way I see it in the short way.
Thorsten, now over to you. A brief introduction of yourself maybe and of Wegesrand from your point of view.
Yeah. Thank you for this interview and all the possibility to talk about the potential co-merger or acquisition with Wegesrand and Wicket Gaming, which is what we see a very good opportunity to develop together something great. My background is economics, but my passion is creating value and synergies regarding interactive technology. That's what's the reason why I founded Wegesrand, which is the German way for wayside. It is about the approach not only to rush on your way from one hype to another, but be more reflective and stand at the wayside and think about how to optimize things. This is how we started actually, and this is what my background or the background of the company, Wegesrand, is.
Myself, I'm working with interactive media since 1999, working with games since 2003, having some kind of a journey which also gave me the possibility to head game from 2013 to 2016. When I founded Wegesrand in 2013, it was the idea to create something like the supply chain or the value chain of interactive technology in order to produce educational and entertainment-related projects. This is my background. This is how we found a little bit also Wicket Gaming because they were searching for someone to give the cricket game some kind of an extra plus regarding user experience.
This is where this journey started 6-7 months ago, where we just helped a little bit out working on the Cricket Manager game. It enlarged by months, from months to months, and then someday we sit together and thought of, "Okay, let's create something great together." That's why we are here now, actually.
From your point of view, why do you think Wicket is a good fit for Wegesrand?
In a nutshell, it's about people and passion. I think that we and Wicket believe that the combination of both the Wicket idea and our thoughts about how to do interactive content in the future is absolutely matching. We thought of, "Okay, give that one more than one thought." We found so many things which totally make sense for the future. We thought of, "Okay, adding this one by one doesn't mean two, but it means three to four to five to something." This is what we think of bringing something together, people with passion regarding games, bringing people together regarding interactive technology, education, and media, and that is of course more than just having a game studio or something.
This is what I think is a benefit for both.
Thorsten, from where you see Wegesrand today, how would you describe the strengths and weaknesses with the company?
The strengths of Wegesrand is, I think it's diversity because we are looking onto three markets which create a high synergy if you drive them for each other, but combining them whenever you need it. Wegesrand is very active regarding education. Wegesrand is active creating high-quality graphical assets, and Wegesrand is active at developing video games. This is I think our strength because we can see 100 and 360 degree perspective on a project, of finding the right talent for the right project, understanding what is needed for a project, and connecting the dots in some way that you get a really high-quality project in the end. That's our strengths, I think. When it comes to weakness from some point of course, it is we are 100% own financed.
We see a high potential joining forces with Wicket of course from the perspective of making something, scaling up something, faster and bigger because we have the infrastructure for that. Of course together with Wicket we can combine that, and that is I think a really big advantage for both in the end.
I asked Eric about the potential synergies here going forward. Do you agree with his view on that one?
Absolutely, because we are doing it right now. We are right now very deep in the development process of the Cricket Manager game. What we see is a very high, a very positive combination out of these three market approaches regarding media, education, and gaming. We see so many synergies all day long working with these people very close together since six months now. Yeah, that's absolutely what we see as an advantage. Yeah.
Regarding the education part of your business, how many projects have you ongoing there?
At the same time, it's about 6-10, something like that. Of course, we are always looking forward to see what we can do next in this market. Yeah, when we are looking on that market, we see a lot of things we can do at schools. We can do a lot at consumer education, training concepts for big organizations like Mercedes-Benz. For museums, public spaces, there's a lot of things going on, and we are looking how could we adopt that technology from the games industry into the educational markets, and how could we adopt that kind of technology in a way that you can use it more often. Let's talk about EdTech, for example. This is very close. Also, the production process of a game.
Mm-hmm
An educational solution with a playfulness approach is very close. Yeah, that's what we do in the educational market using game technology and using the resource we have in-house.
Mm.
That's how it works.
Erik, maybe a comment from your end on the educational part of the business. Is that something that you see as interesting as well from your end?
Of course it is, because to some extent, you know, the gamification, it's becoming a well-known, I would say, phenomenon, okay? The way we see it is that slowly we can see a shift here. If you look at a lot of educational apps already out there in the market, usually what they are, they are pretty well, I would say, mechanically done, but it doesn't give, for example, my child, which is seven years old, a very nice experience. It doesn't add to her extra interest of wanting to learn more. If we can add that knowledge from our gaming, I would say from a gaming leg, that would make the things, the product so much better. The EdTech part is a high potential for the future. We actually share the thoughts of Thorsten and Wegesrand regarding this.
Mm-hmm. Thorsten, looking at your order books overall, what is the trend? I mean, how are you feeling about potential orders going forward?
Actually, we are quite happy. We are doing some kind of 40% more turnover this year, revenue. The books are. We have a lot of projects in the pipeline, and actually we are looking onto a market, of course, which is also a little bit changing because of the pandemic situation. Everybody is looking now onto digital learning, for example, at schools and stuff, and this also does reflect our order book and also the things we are working on right now. So we are looking into a bright future from that perspective. Yeah, we are right now, for example, working for the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in for. We are doing their digital escape room to bring people some kind of information how they can IT security does work.
We are working for the Bavarian Digital Ministry to educate kids in the third and fourth class in order to understand how, what kind of risks are going on with social media. We're working on a mathematics project right now to learn mathematical stuff for kids as well. There are lots of things going on, and playfulness is part of the media consumption.
Mm
of these kids every day, so we adopt that kind of media they are using in their daily life to bring it to the educational, to the education. It's not even the educational market, it's just the education, how they learn things. Of course, this is something which has a high potential for the future, so we are looking also into from the perspective of what will happen next. We see a lot of things going on right now.
Yeah.
Thorsten, looking at your market, Wegesrand's clients, is that primarily in Europe or do you act globally?
Actually, this is one kind, also something which we take into account when we do that collaboration with Wicket Gaming. Of course, what we do in Germany or what we do in Europe, which is our main focus market right now, of course, because we are a German-based company, we see a lot of things we can also bring to other countries, for example, like India and also Australia, the U.S., wherever. Because for example, if you look into how to use social media and you put it, when you put something like that in a learning app, you can use that in Germany, but of course you can adapt that also to foreign markets. Right now, yes, Germany is our main market. We are also working in Austria. We are working with...
Of course, we have also clients, for example, in the games market in the U.S., for example. Of course, the main market is Germany, Europe, but next step should be to adopt potential products we generate.
Mm
Out of that pipeline into foreign markets like India and so on.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
It has been communicated that the intention for Wicket is to use your extensive network to identify new acquisition targets. In what areas do you think that you will be looking in the near future?
I think we look into synergies. We look into companies which already have proven that they are able to create something great, and which are compatible to the strategy of the company, which right now is management-based simulation games. Yeah, that's of course the first focus. We wanna add more cricket managers on a long run, of course. This specific focus offers an orientation of which companies could generate a benefit for the upcoming product pipeline, and by this it does also represent the focus of upcoming acquisition goals. That's, I think, something we can take into account. My network, the people I'm working with, their network, of course, we know a lot of people in the European markets.
We know actually also a lot of talents which makes sense to add to that structure, and that's what we wanna combine, that's clear focus we have of the company. Of course, what is next regarding the game strategy, but of course, what is also next regarding interactive content to transfer knowledge. That's this.
Mm.
Media is also interesting if you look at, for example, how CGI-generated movies are created. There's a lot inside of that production process which you can use for games and education at the same time, and of course, if you look at media, that is also interesting from the perspective of what can this kind of product help us to make the other products better. That's also something we are looking at from the perspective of the creation process. That's, I think, what we are looking for in the next steps.
Thank you, Thorsten. Eric, any final words from your end? I mean, where are you in the due diligence process right now? What's left?
Well, it's activated. They're looking into the documents. I know that Thorsten has a long list that needs to be provided. Yeah, I totally agree. Well, they're working on it, and we are pretty confident that we will find a nice solution for both parties, so this is gonna happen. That's our whole ambition about it. We really look forward to bringing Thorsten to Wicket Gaming and becoming a part of us.
Thorsten, Eric, thank you very much for today, and good luck with the merger.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
Talk to you. Bye.
Thank you. Bye.