Today 888 Holdings Relists ordinary stocks in accordance with UK FCA framework rules that apply to the reverse acquisition of William Hill. (Image by Photo by AbsolutVision on Unsplash)
William Hill has continued to operate as one of the UK’s leading sports betting and online casino brands in the midst of passing through the hands of major gambling PLCs.
Now the brand’s future is set with 888 Holdings PLC confirming the William Hill acquisition is finally complete via a recent statement on its investor and financial portal. Since shareholders voted in favour of the acquisition, as of 1 July, 888 officially has complete control of all William Hill International assets in both the online and land-based retail spaces.
Also in the report, 888 Holdings mentions that under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) the rules state that the deal is a ‘Reverse Acquisition’. This FCA status is due to the fact that the entirety of the William Hill International arm is bigger than 888 Holding’s current business. Under the FCA laws, this requires the cancellation of ordinary shares, in the case of 888 Holdings, 446,331,656 of them worth 0.005 GBP.
888 Holdings unlisted those shares from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) today 4 July 2022 at 8.00 am. A new set of shares became relisted at the time today. Now the deal is fully in place and all William Hill high street betting stores are running under 888 Holdings as are the online casino and sports book entities.
888 Holdings Share Prices: This morning when the LSE opened at GMT 8:00 am, the 888 Holdings PLC (LON: 888) began trading at 173 GBX. 2 hours into the day, those stocks rose to 175.30 GBX.
888 Holdings New Company Structure + UKGC & MGA Licensing + Operators
The new company structure for 888 Holdings includes 4 divisions. The William Hill portion of the business comes directly from Caesars Entertainment which sold off all non-US William Hill assets with a focus of concentrating on the US market only.
- 888 Holdings (Global & US)
- William Hill Online UK (Includes Mr Green Limited)
- William Hill Retail (UK)
- William Hill International (non-US assets)
Interestingly, the William Hill acquisition comes with the formable Mr Green Casino and Sports Betting brand as 888 Holdings takes the Mr Green Limited operator under its wing. On top of this, William Hill Casino and sportsbook is also under the 888 Holdings structure.
I checked both websites to confirm the operators remain the same and that licensing with the MGA and UKGC remains the same.
- Mr Green currently still shows Mr Green Limited as operator and licence holder of the MGA and UKGC licenses.
- Over on the William Hill site, it states that William Hill Global PLC is the operator and licence for the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) license MGA/CRP/121/2006-05. WHG (International) Limited operates the UK casino under UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) under account number 39225.
UKGC & MGA Licensing: 888 Holdings retains the UKGC and MGA licensing for the William Hill and Mr Green brands. You can learn more about the games and bonus deals in the casino review area.
William Hill CEO and CFO Exit from William Hill
As soon as the deal went through, the agreement was that Ulrik Bengtsson, the CEO, and Eric Hageman the CFO, of William Hill, would step down from their positions. Also, as expected, 888 Holdings already has an action plan in place naming several key figures in control of operations for the new 888 company structure.
- CEO: Itai Pazner
- CFO: Yariv Dafna
- CTO: Naama Kushnir
- COO: Guy Cohen
- CRO: Harinder Gill
- SCO: Vaughan Lewis
- CPO: Mark Skinner
Also, Satty Bhens is the Chief Product & Technology Officer and Phil Walker Managing Director of UK operations. Some names not mentioned here include Howard Mittman who is the new US president of the US side of 888 Holdings.
Full 888 Announcement: You can read the full 888 Holdings announcement confirming the acquisition of William Hill here.
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