The acquisition of BMM Testlabs, a specialist in product compliance testing for the gaming sector, has been completed by private investment firm The Visualize Group, said BMM Testlabs in a Wednesday announcement from the United States.

The deal had been flagged in an April statem ent, which at the time had said the exercise was subject to regulatory approvals.

Those had been received “across multiple global jurisdictions,” said Wednesday’s update.

It added that fact was “underscoring the confidence of gaming regulators worldwide in this partnership” between privately-held BMM Testlabs and Visualize. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The statement further asserted: “The transaction represents the first-ever control acquisition of a major regulated gaming testing laboratory, marking the opening of a market that has been structurally inaccessible to institutional capital.”

Per the announcement, Visualize was founded in 2023, is based in New York in the United States, and is led by C. C. Melvin Ike, a former managing director at investment manager Blackstone Inc.

Martin Storm, president and chief executive of BMM Testlabs, was quoted saying: “Today marks the beginning of an exciting and ambitious new chapter for BMM.

“Gaming regulators across the globe have endorsed this partnership through their approvals, and I am proud of the trust we have built over more than four decades.”

In April, it was said Mr Storm would continue leading the BMM Testlabs business, as and when the deal was approved.

Mr Storm added in his Wednesday comments: “With Visualize’s support, we can now invest aggressively in our people, our technology, and our global footprint in ways that were not previously possible.

“Our customers should expect faster turnaround times, expanded jurisdictional coverage, deeper technical capabilities, and a level of service and partnership that no other testing laboratory in the world can match.”

Mr Ike, founder and managing partner of Visualize, was cited as saying in the statement: “We built Visualize to own irreplaceable businesses in markets where regulatory complexity creates durable, defensible demand.

“BMM is a clear expression of this thesis. The regulated gaming industry generates more than US$600 billion in annual gross gaming revenue globally, and its testing, inspection, compliance, and certification infrastructure – the certification and compliance layer that every product must pass through before it can reach market – is structurally underpenetrated by institutional capital.”

He added: “BMM’s multi-decade track record of regulatory trust and an irreplaceable stable of licences represent a moat that would take a new entrant decades and significant capital to replicate.”

BMM Testlabs, founded in 1981, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the U.S.

The organisation says it serves gaming product suppliers, operators, and regulators across six continents, employing more than 700 professionals in 16 offices worldwide and holding more than 700 regulatory and related business licences.

One of BMM Testlabs’ major rivals, privately-held gaming technology testing and security consultancy Gaming Laboratories International LLC (GLI), is also amid an acquisition process: a unit of private equity firm CVC Capital Partners filed regulatory notices of intention to acquire GLI.

GGRAsia

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