Takealot founder and former CEO hired to head MultiChoice-owned sports betting company
Blue Lake Ventures Group (BLV Group) has appointed Takealot founder and former CEO Kim Reid as its CEO, Daily Investor reports.
BLV owns Africa-focused online sports betting service BetKing, and pay-TV giant MultiChoice owns 49% of BLV.
According to the report, Reid took the reigns at BLV on 1 August 2022 and will remain Takealot’s group chairman.
Reid has a long history with MultiChoice, dating back to 2000, when he served as chief financial officer.
He became CEO of Internet service provider Mweb in 2003 when it and MultiChoice were still owned by Naspers.
In 2006, Naspers announced the creation of 24.com with Reid at the helm.
Officially, Reid was a division CEO within Naspers’s MIH subsidiary, which comprised companies like MultiChoice and Mweb.
He left MIH and Naspers at the end of 2009 and took a break from corporate life, but was soon approached by Tiger Global Management with a co-investment opportunity in South Africa’s ecommerce market.
In October 2010, Reid and Tiger acquired Take2, an online retail company that seven investors in Cape Town started in 2002.
Reid served as CEO, and the company was relaunched as Takealot.com in June 2011.
Under his leadership, Takealot grew into the dominant ecommerce retailer in South Africa.
It acquired Mr Delivery to secure its logistics network, bought Superbalist.com, and Reid ultimately rejoined the Naspers machine through a merger with Kalahari.com.
Reid stepped down as Takealot CEO in 2021 and became its group chairman.
MultiChoice announced in November 2020 that it acquired a 20% stake in BetKing (BLV Group’s trading name) for R1.8 million.
It doubled down last year by announcing it would increase its stake in BLV Group from 20% to 49% for around R4 billion.
“Sports betting is an interesting market that is aligned to our pay-TV business,” said MultiChoice Group CEO Calvo Mawela.
“We have a lot of sport on our platform, and many people that are betting watch more games.”