Marwyn Gaming has increased its estate of adult gaming centres to 159 following the acquisition of the Agora branded venues in a deal worth £6.7m.

Marwyn Gaming, which is a subsidiary of Marwyn Management Partners and also operates FECs, bingo clubs and a bingo website, purchased the operator of the 63 Agora gaming centres, Baleday Ltd and Restcare Ltd, from DMS2.

MGL now boasts an estate of 159 AGCs.

Agora, which was acquired by Baleday in December 2010, brought Praesepe on board to manage the company’s AGCs in February. The latter was itself acquired by MMP in June and will also be a subsidiary of Marwyn Gaming.

Praesepe CEO Nick Harding said the acquisition marks an “important step” for the company.

“The Agora sites are mainly located within the M25, geographically complementing our nationwide network of Cashino venues, and occupy some excellent positions in major retail centres,” he said. “The acquisition allows us to fully integrate the operation of the Agora AGCs with the operation of our Cashino AGCs and we expect the deregulation of Category B3 gaming machines together with the anticipated changes to Category C machines and the recently announced planned reintroduction of the Triennial review process to continue to have a positive impact on the business and the potential for future revenue growth."

MMP executive director Mark Watts said the acquisition of Agora leverages the operational platform of Praesepe, which has a “track record of successfully delivering a buy-and-build strategy in the gaming sector.”