William Hill considers joint offer for Sportingbet

One of Britain's biggest bookmakers, William Hill, is considering merging Sportingbet into its group through a joint bid with European gaming company GVC.

Shares in Sportingbet rose by 17 per cent as rumours about the merger deal began to circulate, however William Hill and GVC have until 16 October to announce a concrete offer.

If the deal goes through, the companies are likely to split Sportingbet's operations between them, with William Hill taking the Australian and other locally licensed Sportingbet businesses. The target company makes around 90 per cent of its profits in Australia and has around a third of the country's online gambling market.

However, the company has other operations in Spain and other areas within Europe and the emerging markets that are also likely to be of interest in the event of a merger.

A statement from William Hill read: “William Hill and GVC note the recent share price movement of Sportingbet and confirm that they are in the preliminary stages of considering a possible joint offer for Sportingbet.

"William Hill and GVC have committed to work exclusively with each other in this regard."

If the joint offer materialises, it is likely to be made “substantially in cash” and would contain an element of GVC paper.

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