888 tables bid to acquire bwin.party

Operator confirms bid to acquire bwin.party just days after GVC mounted a reverse takeover bid

888 has today confirmed it has joined the race to acquire bwin.party after tabling a bid to acquire the entire share capital of the operator. [private]

In an RNS statement released this morning, 888 confirmed weekend UK press reports that it had made an offer to acquire bwin.party in a deal estimated to be worth more than £1bn ($1.57bn).

“The Board believes that there is significant industrial logic in a combination of 888 and bwin.party, benefiting both companies and all shareholders and, accordingly, has submitted a proposal regarding the acquisition of the entire issued and to be issued share capital of bwin.party for consideration comprising cash and 888 shares,” 888 said in an RNS statement.

The proposed cash and shares deal would require the approval of 888 shareholders, of which the firm said it had already garnered the support of 59%.

EGR North America understands the Shaked family, which has a 48% stake in 888, has approved the takeover bid having previously scuppered UK bookmaker William Hill’s £750m ($1.1bn) bid to acquire the operator back in February.

Today’s announcement comes after GVC Holdings revealed on Friday it had made an offer for bwin.party in a non-cash deal which would be treated as a reverse takeover.

Bwin.party has confirmed the receipt of both bids and said it will now study the proposals but stressed there was “no certainty” either offer would be accepted.

An 888 takeover of bwin.party would certainly make sense from an operational point of view, with the two firms already linked through B2B partnerships.

Bwin.party uses the 888 Dragonfish platform to power its Foxy Bingo site, and recently strengthened that partnership to launch a Foxy-branded casino offering.

Both operators are also licensed and operating poker and casino platforms in the regulated New Jersey market.

And while bwin.party’s market cap of £812.5m ($1.2bn) overshadows that of 888 at £585.1m ($917m), the operators have experienced very different fortunes of late.

888 has gone from strength to strength reporting record FY 2014 profits, but bwin.party has seen continued decline with revenues and EBITDA both down 6% last year.

Amaya Gaming is the only other major operator strongly linked with an acquisition of bwin.party but has yet to make an offer for the operator.

Bwin.party’s share price was up 11.4% this morning to 110.8p while 888’s had dropped 3.6% to 163.50p.