Home / Poker News March 2013 / William Hill Acquire Playtech
William Hill Acquire Playtech
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2013-03-01 07:33
With their mind firmly set on growth and expansion,
William Hill have acquired
online poker and gambling technology and service provider Playtech in a block-buster deal worth around £424 million. William Hill have now made two major acquisitions this quarter: besides the Playtech deal, they have already taken over the Spanish and Australian side of online gambling company Sportingbet, in another massive £460 million deal.
The Playtech acquisition will be paid for with money raised from a rights issue (amounting to about £375 million). The remaining £50 million will be covered from the company’s 2012 Bridge Credit Facility.
Although all the nuts and bolts seem to be in place, the Playtech takeover still needs to be OKd by William Hill shareholders. The deal has to be finalized before the end of April 2013.
William Hill, started as a brick and mortar gambling/betting operation way back in 1935, has seen its brand-name develop into a familiar one for gamblers/sports bettors all across Britain, where the operator still has around 2,000 betting shops running. The Playtech move will mark a major evolutionary step in the history of the company, moving aggressively to assert its presence online and in various overseas markets. During the last 12 months, the company has indeed taken its first steps to break into the budding regulated market in the US, and in addition to that, it has secured a foothold in the Australian market, eyed with ever-increasing interest by various gambling and online gambling experts. The deal which will see William Hill take over SportingBet’s Australian and Spanish assets is scheduled to be finalized on March 19.
Playtech, the software provider behind
Titan Poker,
Winner Poker and
Poker 770, have apparently begun analyzing the best ways to put the funds resulting from the transaction to good use. The company will focus its efforts on the emerging regulated markets.
