William Hill in bid to buy rival to boost online share

The high street bookmaker is in buyout discussions with Gibraltar-based Probability, which claims to have about one million UK customers for its bingo, poker and casino games and owns the Lady Luck’s brand.

There has been a dramatic increase in online gaming in recent years, boosted by betting on-the-move through smartphones and tablet computers.

William Hill, which already offers poker, bingo and casino games online, hopes to increase its online presence to better compete with rivals such as Wink Bingo operator 888 Holdings.

Probability is now valued at around £17.5m after a sharp jump in its share price following its disclosure on Monday that it had received an approach.

William Hill issued a statement yesterday confirming its interest.

Under new takeover rules, it has until 5pm on October 17 to say whether it intends to make an offer.

In a statement, William Hill said: “Further to the announcement by Probability confirming that it is in preliminary discussions with William Hill, which may or may not lead to an offer for the company, William Hill confirms that its current expectation is that any offer, if made, would be in cash.

“However, William Hill reserves the right to reconsider and, if appropriate, amend this position as discussions progress.”

It added that the statement is not an announcement of a firm intention to make an offer and “there can be no certainty that an offer will be made, nor as to the terms on which any offer will be made”.

The gambling sector is seen as ripe for further takeovers after Austrian internet betting group bwin and British peer PartyGaming merged earlier this year to form bwin.party digital, the world’s largest online gaming business.

The two companies called the all-share deal a merger of equals although bwin shareholders ended up owning 51.6 per cent of the company while investors in PartyGaming held the remaining 48.4 per cent.

The merged group, now listed on the London Stock Exchange, is jointly run by the former chief executives of the two companies, Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger.

Ladbrokes is also trying to boost its presence online and has been in talks with Sportingbet after discussions with 888 fell through.

Analysts predict online gambling will become an increasingly important part of the market.

Ladbrokes reported a large increase in the number of bets placed using mobile devices and Betfair recently said the number of bets made online nearly doubled in the past quarter.

Betfair said its second quarter had started strongly, following an expected drop in its first-quarter revenue when it faced a tough comparative period.