William Hill and GVC Holdings have been given four weeks longer to finalise their takeover of Sportingbet. Various media outlets reported over the weekend that Hills and GVC need extra time beyond the original November 13 deadline to conclude their £530million joint bid for the firm. It’s also expected that Hills will get the company’s Spanish business while some claim the process is being held up GVC slowing the due diligence process.
A source quoted by the Financial Times stated that “the deal is making good progress” even though work on the deal is “a bit complicated”.
For those not familiar with the deal itself, William Hill is hoping to take on Sportingbet’s operations that are in regulated jurisdictions with the big prize being the company’s Australian business. It gives Hills a market leading online product Down Under and is a business that accounted for almost 70 percent of Sportingbet’s revenues last year. GVC, meanwhile, will take control of the company’s “grey market” operations in territories including Turkey. The Spanish business, which is mentioned earlier, has only just been added to the Hills side of the deal and comes after the market was regulated earlier this year.
At the time of writing none of the three firms involved had made a comment as to whether the extension has in fact been granted and we will know by 5 p.m. tomorrow for certain as that’s when the current deadline for the bid expires. If there’s no confirmation the deal is dead or has gone through then we’ll all be checking back in four weeks time.
