Ladbrokes to buy Playtech

Rumours are spreading in the general casino news world about the proposed deal between Ladbrokes, one of the major online bookmakers and Playtech, one of the major software providers. Certainly for Ladbrokes having a major software provider as part of the group would be a very good thing but of course Playtech provides online casino software to a number of companies who are in competition with Ladbrokes and who therefore might not find such a tie up so attractive and one of those is no less than William Hill. The online arm of William Hill which is known as WHO (William Hill Online) was established in 2008 and is a joint venture between William Hill and Playtech with William Hill being the majority stake holder; William Hill also has options in the terms and conditions to buy out Playtech from the venture but how this arrangement would be affected if Playtech were to be purchased by Ladbrokes is an interesting question. Playtech itself is 40% owned by its Israeli  founder so progress could be quite rapid but the Playtech stake in WHO could be a deal breaker unless William Hill sees it as an opportunity to drive a harder bargain on the buyout of that stake. Ladbrokes is also quite busy at the moment with the possible purchase of 888 which has also been in the casino news but that appears to be going rather slowly so what happens next will be interesting and there could be some questions asked at next week’s results meeting of Ladbrokes..