UK Betting Ripe For A Takeover

Published: Friday, October 06, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

UK BETTING RIPE FOR A TAKEOVER

British company declares it has been approached

There could be more industry consolidation in the wind following a declaration by British gambling company UK Betting.com that it was a takeover target and had been approached by an unidentified suitor.

The company, which operates the ukbetting.com gambling website as well as sports news operations such as football365.com, said it had received "preliminary approaches" from a company interested in making an offer to purchase.

City experts said that following the news of the anti-online gambling legislation from the USA at the weekend, a flurry of takeover activity can now be expected as operators look to compensate for the loss of revenues from the significant US market.

Ukbetting is the first company to reveal it has been approached, although it warned that there was "no certainty" that a formal offer will be made. The company is in a stronger position than some because it has eschewed bets from US gamblers due to uncertainty over the legal situation across the Atlantic.

Ukbetting lost a relatively low 6 percent of its value earlier this week in the chaotic sell-off following the US ban, where several leading companies saw their value halved or worse. The announcement of the approaches sent its shares 12 percent higher Thursday.

The company is currently worth GBP 84 million (Euro124 million), and also owns Teamtalk Media Group which has websites including sportinglife.com, teamtalk.com, golf365.com and planetf1.com.

Early and unconfirmed rumours suggested the mystery suitor was Party Gaming. Although the mega-group has suffered major declines in share price due to the US situation, it has strong cash reserves and an appetite for acquisitions. Earlier this week CEO Mitch Garber said that a postponed dividend worth $115 million could be used to snap up vulnerable online gambling companies.