UK High Street giant Sports Direct now owns around 83.88 per cent of Game Digital's stock.

In a regulatory notice posted this morning, the troubled store said that Mike Ashley's retail behemoth owned 145,057,695 shares as on 1pm on Friday, July 12th. At the close of trading for last week, GAME Digital's share price hit 30p, the price at which Sports Direct said it would buy the company at, making this slice of the company worth £43.5m ($54.6m).

As a result, GAME Digital's bosses have applied for the company's shares to be delisted from the London Stock Exchange, something that will come into effect by August 12th, saying that current shareholders need to sell their stock. Once Sports Direct's stake hits 90 per cent, remaining shares will be sold automatically.

This is the latest chapter in the Sports Direct and Game Digital saga. Mike Ashley's firm initially invested in GAME back in July 2017, buying 25.75 per cent of the retail chain. This figure rose to just below the 30 per cent mandatory offer threshold in March of this year.

In June 2019, Sports Direct bought up a huge slice of shares from Marlborough UK Micro-Cap Growth Fund, bringing its total ownership in GAME Digital up to 38.49 per cent. Under UK law, Sports Direct had to put in a mandatory offer to buy the company now that it owned more than 30 per cent, something it did the following day on June 6th, saying it would pay 30p per share for GAME Digital, a total of £52m ($66.1m).

GAME Digital's board - led by boss Martyn Gibbs (pictured) told shareholders later that month that it should accept Sports Direct's offer on the retailer.