Mergers are the talk of the industry right now. There’s been a buzz surrounding the “Pwin” merger ever since it was announced months ago and they’re still having to confirm its presence. Therefore it wasn’t going to be long until the hot stove was switched on and we started to hear rumours of other mergers. Europe is the key market as far as mergers are concerned and the Sunday Times recognized that this weekend as a source told them of an upcoming merger.
According to the article, Sportingbet and Unibet have held preliminary discussion on a merger that is expected to happen in the early part of next year and be worth around $600m.
Sportingbet’s statement seemed to suggest that a merger may well take place, and read thus: “The company confirms that it has had and will continue to have discussions with different parties in relation to a variety of potential opportunities,”
“There can be no certainty as to whether or not such discussions will result in any form of transaction. Any further announcement will be made if and when appropriate.”
Unibet spokesperson Inga Lundberg took a more guarded approach, and commented: “There are a lot of rumours and speculation within this industry (and have been during the last 10 years). It is the Company’s policy never to comment on any of these.”
It will interesting to see what happens over the coming weeks but Sportingbet’s comments seem to suggest that something may well be in the pipeline so watch this space.
As for the name…how about Spurtingbet?
