NorthStar Gaming has entered into an agreement to acquire Slapshot Media, one day after publicly announcing its deal with a financial advisory service firm.

The initial six-month agreement struck with Blue Sky Trading & Consulting – made effective last month – felt like the prelude to an acquisition, and so it has proved with NorthStar set to pay $1.8m for 100% of Slapshot’s issues and outstanding shares, payable in 3,272,727 common shares of NorthStar at $0.55 per share.

Slapshot is a Canadian igaming marketing company which provides managed services to Spreads.ca, an igaming site owned and operated by the Abenaki Council of Wolinak.

Michael Moskowitz, Chief Executive Officer and Founding Partner of NorthStar, explained: “The acquisition of Slapshot expands our ability to enter new markets faster as we look to introduce NorthStar Bets to consumers across the country.

“We are hyper focused on growing the reach of NorthStar and this strategic acquisition and partnership further positions NorthStar for rapid growth into new markets within Canada.”

NorthStar recently started trading on the TSX Venture Exchange after delisting its shares from the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) and became an AGCO-approved operator in Ontario’s regulated igaming market last year.

However, NorthStar insists Spread.ca will not be made available in Ontario, nor will it offer any other online casino and sportsbook in the province aside from its NorthStar Bets brand.

Instead, NorthStar plans to leverage this acquisition to expand the brand across the rest of Canada as the Toronto-based firm pledged to do when it secured investment from Playtech in February.

The transaction is still subject to approval from the TSX-V but is expected to close on or before May 5, with the Slapshot owners entitled to a separate earn-out of up to $500,000 based on its revenue performance for the 12-month period following the closing.