Shareholders in prominent online casino and sportsbook operator 888 Holdings reportedly overwhelmingly approved the deal yesterday that is to see the company acquire the non-American assets of British rival William Hill for approximately £585 million ($762.1 million).
According to a Monday report from a source, entities controlling 99.73% of the London-listed giant’s shareholding voted in favor of the proposed takeover with the entire transaction involving seller Caesars Entertainment Incorporated now set to be completed sometime around the end of next month. The Gibraltar-headquartered buyer purportedly explained that this exercise will also see it recommence the trading of its shares following approval from the Financial Conduct Authority.
Profitable prediction:
Jonathan Mendelsohn serves as the Non-Executive Chairman for 888 Holdings and he reportedly used an official filing to thank shareholders for their continued support ‘for our proposed acquisition of William Hill’. He purportedly went on to disclose that the combined entities would have generated aggregated annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of about $437 million off of some $2.1 billion in overall revenues if the transaction had been completed before 2021.
Reportedly read a statement from Mendelsohn…
“We look forward to completing this transformational acquisition at the end of June to create a global online betting and gaming leader through the combination of two highly complementary businesses and two of the industry’s leading brands.”
Latvian launch:
In related news and the source used a subsequent report to divulge that William Hill is set to launch its flagship WilliamHill.com online casino and sportsbetting service into Latvia via an existing alliance with local domain 11.lv. The operator purportedly detailed that this partner site, which it acquired in 2019, is a ‘top three player’ in the Baltic nation’s iGaming market and additionally provides financial support for the Responsible Gambling Latvian Cup football competition.
New name:
William Hill reportedly asserted that it now intends to rebrand 11.lv under its own moniker while combining existing media partnerships with ‘bespoke creatives’ and its own ‘Brotherhood’ responsible gambling concept to further boosts the domain’s popularity in Latvia ahead of a series of important sporting events including the 2022 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship.
Alluring arrangement:
Nir Hakarmeli serves as the International Managing Director for William Hill and he reportedly declared that he is ‘very proud of the work’ his company has done in building 11.lv to become ‘one of the leading brands’ in the burgeoning Latvian iGaming market.
A statement from Hakarmeli reportedly read…
“This makes us well-positioned to take this strategic step and we look forward to introducing one of the strongest brands in the industry and proving to our Latvian customers that William Hill is who you play with.”
