Less than a week ago, it was announced that 888 Holdings is to acquire bwin.party for the amount of ₤898 million. 888 had to face tough opponents interested in becoming bwin owners and it seemed like the battle was over.
However, one of the competitors, GVC Holdings Plc, revealed that it is still “considering options” related to the acquisition of bwin.party Digital Entertainment Plc.
This morning, GVC released a special statement on the matter and confirmed that the bwin acquisition is still on the agenda but did not specify as to whether another offer will be made. Yet, they promised that the affected parties will be notified in case of any change.
Although the proposal of 888 was lower than the one made by GVC, the Gibraltar-based company was the one to get the approval of bwin’s board. The reason for that was the fact that GVC’s offer was regarded as a more complicated one, so they opted for the simpler offer in order to avoid taking unnecessary risks.
Now, five days after the announcement that bwin has been acquired by 888 Holdings, GVC officials released a statement in which they imply that they might make yet another proposal without the financial backing of Amaya Gaming. The latter is a Canadian gaming giant in charge of two of the leading poker platforms on a global scale – Full Tilt and PokerStars. In point of fact, the involvement of Amaya in the deal was the main reason why bwin board decided to choose 888 Holdings.
The first bid GVC placed totaled £906.5 million. If GVC was the winning bidder, it would work in collaboration with Amaya Gaming. The sports-betting activities of bwin were to be managed by GVC while Amaya was to be responsible for the poker operations.
The first proposal, which was made together with Amaya, was a combination of cash and shares and the majority of funds were provided by Amaya. Now, GVC is willing to become the sole owner of bwin.party, which makes the situation a bit complicated due to the following reason. The market value of GVC was estimated at £250.9 million, which, therefore, means the company has to ensure sufficient funds for buying bwin. A GVC spokesperson remained tight-lipped about company’s future actions but said that they are still reviewing all possible alternatives.
