PokerStars owner, Amaya, is apparently employing a William Hill merger and purchase specialist to restore its M&A push, after a failed merger deal aided by the aforementioned major UK operator, The Sunday instances writes.
Amaya bought the Rational Group, owner of PokerStars, back 2014 in a $4.9-billion deal. At that time, the transaction had been unprecedented in its scale for the industry. Within the last many years, Amaya has expanded the Stars brand into the online casino and activities space that is betting. Based on the organization’s full-year report for 2016, its casino and sportsbook division saw a 99% increase in income to $271.3 million from $136.3 million in 2015.
Given online poker’s somewhat stalled progress, its believed that Amaya may want to delve even more into other gambling fields.
Based on some media reports, the Canadian gambling giant has been around talks to hire William Hill Group Director of Strategy and Corporate Development Robin Chhabra. Based on other people, Amaya has already convinced Mr. Chhabra into joining its team in which he is to become part of the operator later in 2010.
Mr. Chhabra did for William Hill for the last seven years. Ahead of that, he had occupied the Director of Corporate Development post at digital sports provider encouraged Gaming.
Leading development that is corporate at major gambling organizations, Mr. Chhabra has, among other items, recommended executives on M&A matters. Him joining Amaya could easily be viewed being a sign for the prospective renewal associated with operator’s merger and acquisition push.
Last year, Amaya and William Hill joined talks about a £5-billion merger deal that will have developed a gambling titan with sports wagering, poker, and gaming operations across multiple jurisdictions. Nonetheless, the offer failed being a be a consequence of severe pressure from a number of William Hill’s major shareholders.
Amaya approaching William Hill revealed clear indications that the company that is canadian thinking about entering the ongoing M&A activity in the gambling space. What exactly is more, its choice of a major bookmaker for the potential mate might be viewed as a hint to the PokerStars owner’s wish to leverage in the success of the experienced partner to further develop its own sports gambling company.
It’s yet become seen when and when Amaya will approach another gambling operator, but the competition that is growing the area as well as the ever-changing regulatory environment suggest that there might be further M&A activity among leading operators this present year.
Aside from Amaya, William Hill, 888 Holdings, and also The Rank Group have, too, shown interest that is clear the ongoing trend for major industry players to combine their operations and therefore enhance their profitability and competition abilities. In fact, 888 and Rank Group approached William Hill summer that is last two acquisition offers that have been rejected by the latter. Despite this past year’s failure, it will never be a shock if these three result in the headlines with M&A news in 2017.