Earlier in the year at a dreadful Cheltenham Festival for the British bookmaking industry, William Hill lost heaps of money, thanks to a wealth of favourites landing wins at the famous festival. It was a hard knock for them to swallow and they needed something to help offset those losses. They apparently got just that at Euro 2016 with Portugal coming through to take the title against the odds.
William Hill reportedly earned £36m from Euro 2016, which covered the Cheltenham losses and they finished the first half of the year strongly.
However, the bigger news from William Hill is that there are merger rumours brewing. Online operator 888 and casino giant Rank are apparently interested in a three-way merger with William Hill. While no offer has been made, it is believed that such a deal would be to the tune of around £3bn for the bookmaker. That’s a lot of money being thrown around, but William Hill aren’t yet sure whether or not it would enhance their operations.
888 and Rank both see “significant industrial logic in the combination” and a merger would deliver “substantial revenue and cost synergies”. While the interest has been made public and William Hill is obviously aware of it, they have received nothing more than a “highly preliminary” approach about the merger. The consortium would have until August 21 to formally announce their intention of an offer for William Hill.
Apparently there has been no price, timing and terms been offered by the consortium but they said:
“The board of William Hill would listen to and consider any proposal which might be forthcoming from the consortium.”
“It is not clear that a combination of William Hill with 888 and Rank will enhance William Hill’s strategic positioning or deliver superior value to William Hill’s strategy, which is focused on increasing the group’s diversification by growing its digital and international businesses,” William Hill stated.
