Looking for confirmation of the Aristocrat billion Euro Playtech takeover? We tracked down confirmation and what the bid means for iGaming. (Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash)
One of Australia’s leading online slot provider brands, Aristocrat, has officially made a takeover bid for London Stock Exchange-listed and UK tax registered iGaming firm Playtech. According to a report in Bloomberg, the Aussie company has made an AU$ 5 billion (US$ 3.7 billion) bid. In Euros, that’s around €3.1 billion, which is a seriously big and one confirmed by one of the world’s most in-the-known financial publications.
Currently, at the time of writing this news report, Playtech shares were up 56.57% sitting at 672 pence per share. Aristocrat’s bid was 680.00 pence per share. As of the date the bid came in from Aristocrat Leisure Ltd, the bid was 58% higher than Playtech shares were worth. Just to avoid confusion, the reason Playtech shares are now double is that Aristocrat is now the majority shareholder.
ALL: AU on the Australian stock market has seen its shares also increase since the takeover bid was confirmed. Shares are up 0.48% today and worth 45.79%. This is certainly a company well worth investing in, while if you already have your shares in Playtech, like me, then you will be extremely happy to have doubled your investment.
Although Playtech shares are now worth double, it is still a company to keep an eye on for both investment and future game releases. Playtech is already heavily rooted in US sports betting and iGaming, it has the ever-growing Playtech Games Marketplace, and now the company has the Australian sports betting market to conquer with Ainsworth already on the ground.
Global B2B Expansion: The new deal will see the creation of one of the largest business-to-business platforms in the world according to Trevor Croker, the CEO of Aristocrat. With the current global online gambling business worth an estimated $70 billion last year, and some estimates showing expected growth to reach over $100 billion, we can’t deny that now is the time for such a bold takeover bid from Aristocrat.
Will The Big Go Down Well in the UK?
Playtech is one of the UK iGaming industry’s pride and joys, as was William Hill in the betting circuit before being sold to US firm Caesars Entertainment PLC. For UK fans of the brand, the news is not exactly welcoming as many were already up in arms about the Will Hill deal which has partially come back into UK ownership after 888 Holdings purchased the remaining European assets up for grabs which include the William Hill online casino and sportsbook.
Remains in the UK for now: For the time being, it looks like Playtech will remain a UK registered company, and it will also remain on the London Stock Exchange. However, what plans from the Australian online casino slot developer lay ahead remains to be seen.
Other Big iGaming Acquisition Recently Completed
When it comes to billion-dollar iGaming takeovers, there are quite a few to report. Evolution’s NetEnt take over was worth €1.8 Billion which was big news, while the recent 888 Holdings big for William Hill’s European division was worth £2.2 billion, but that includes retail sports betting so in terms of iGaming, the NetEnt/Evolution deal was the larger of the two. Then, of course, there was the famous Evolution €450 million takeover of Big Time Gaming. Another power shift in iGaming was when The Stars Group (including Sky Betting & Gaming) was acquired by Flutter. This was also another big deal that recently went through and affected the balance of the iGaming industry.
USA Bound: Evolution, 888 Holdings, and Flutter are all floated on stock markets. Evolution on the NASDAQ Stockholm, while 888 Holdings and Flutter are on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Also, Playtech is on the LSE too. And all these companies are now operating in various US sports betting and iGaming markets where new licensing issued state-by-state is bringing online gambling back to the USA.
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