European Online Company In Frame For William Hill Business

The starting gun for the sale of the UK and European assets of William Hill is about to be fired. In an announcement by US gambling giant Caesars Entertainment following the completed acquisition of William Hill last month for £2.9 billion, the US Company said it will sell off the UK and European assets of both the land based and digital businesses of the UK based bookmaker.

It has always been clear from the start that the US casino operator wanted William Hill to boost its digital sports betting presence in the states and had no interest in retaining its businesses across the water.

Now with Caesars stating that the sale will go ahead sometime during the summer the question is who is up for what?

Many analyst’s favourite is Apollo Asset Management, they were the main rival in the bidding for the entire William Hill business but failed to Caesars and it looks almost certain the Wall Street buyout firm will come back again for parts of William Hill, indeed Apollo have already been privy to the bookmakers books in its attempt last year, so know all about the company.

Not just this but Apollo already own  Gamenet, an Italian gambling operator and could combine the two and manage costs that way.

The other contender is 888 Holdings and its founders the Shaked family, the companies Chief Executive Itai Pazner has stated on more than one occasion that the online firm would be interested in any William Hill sale.

However many observers question the need for 888 Holdings to be interested in the 1,400 betting shops William Hill have, the online business makes sense but land based retail?

William Hill businesses this side of the Atlantic will be valued at some £1.5 billion when it goes up for bidding in the summer, but there are rumours that there could be a breakup of the business with Fred Done the founder of Betfred interested in taking the retail arm, however Betfred has 1,600 retail betting shops already and would cause a question over competition monopoly as it would take the retail arm of Betfred to 44% of the whole market.

Could some be sold off to independents or to Paddy Power owners or Ladbrokes? But there is one player that is rumoured that could come in for it all and expand their business even further into new fields.

That company is Kindred, an original Swedish company that could look at William Hill to help it expand its sports betting business online and retail. Kindred already owns 32Red and William Hill owns Mr Green a company Kindred knows well and the savings on cost cutting would make that merger look inviting. Not only that but the retail arm would give Kindred an opportunity it has never had before.

However takes on William Hill UK & European businesses would need to adjust somewhat with the digital and retail sectors, but to all the mentioned above they are highly attractive and bidding will be competitive, whether combined bids come in will be interesting to see.

Whomever wins the bidding it is not expected to be finalised to at least the earliest the end of this year.