On Saturday, the boards of the 2 companies confirmed they were in talks in keeping with press speculation, saying that a merger would create a transparent international leader across online sports betting, poker and casino games.
The merger can be classified as a reverse takeover, with the smaller group William Hill taking on the bigger company, Amaya. The corporations said discussions were ongoing and there might be no certainty that an agreement could be reached.
Amaya runs Pokerstars, the world’s largest online poker business, while William Hill is among the UK’s largest retail bookmakers and likewise has significant operations in Australia.
Amaya shares were suspended on Friday after surging 9 per cent on reports that it was talks a couple of merger, however the company’s remains to be down 23 per cent over the last TWELVE MONTHS. It has a market value of C$3.4bn.
Shares in William Hill are down 15 per cent over the last year, giving the corporate a market value of £2.5bn.
A deal would assemble two companies which were in turmoil over the last year.
In August, David Baazov, the previous chief executive and co-founder of Amaya resigned all his positions on the company. He had previously stepped clear of the CEO position on a brief basis to battle charges of insider trading that he's contesting, but had remained at the board. He has since been replaced by Rafi Ashkenazi.
The Canadian company have been undertaking a strategic review since February, when Amaya said it had received an offer from Mr Baazov to take the corporate private, but no bid was forthcoming.
William Hill remains with no permanent chief executive since James Henderson abruptly stood down in July amid growing concerns over its digital strategy. In August, William Hill rebuffed a £3bn takeover approach from a consortium of Rank Group and 888 Holdings that might have created Britain’s largest gaming group. This was despite William Hill previously making attempts to shop for both companies within the past.
More at Financial Times
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