GVC Makes Official Proposal of $1.4 Billion to Acquire bwin.party

Bwin.party confirmed that GVC Holdings has made an official proposal to buy bwin in a cash and stock combined deal valued at total of $1.4 billion.

As the bidding war for Bwin continues between GVC and its rival 888 Holdings, proposal of GVC could certainly increase their chances to win. Analyst Nick Bartam said that 110 pence per share that GVC offered to bwin probably won’t knock 888 Holdings out of bidding process. However 888 refused to comment whether they planned to make a larger bid.

In May, 888 Holdings confirmed that they had made an offer to buy bwin but details of their offer were not released. bwin.party has announced back in November that the company was in a discussion with several different companies about potential purchase.

Bwin did confirm that the board has received proposal and considered the offer. According to the bwin announcement, the company is ready to work with GVC in upcoming days so GVC can finalize their offer.

Even though Amaya was not mentioned in the announcement, the spokesman for GVC said that Amaya is still involved. It was recently announced that Amaya teamed up with GVC Holdings to create a combined bid for bwin. As it was reported Canadian company is interested to take over bwin’s online poker and gambling business while GVC plans to operate bwin’s sportsbook and bingo operation.

It was also revealed that Amaya is interested in bwin’s sports betting business and that Canadian company might potentially buy the sportsbook from GVC in a two year period. At the moment, Amaya is the biggest publicly listed online gambling company and its brand PokerStars is the largest poker site in the world.

Purchasing bwin would certainly be an amazing opportunity for Amaya’s PokerStars as they are currently trying to complete a license acquisition process to operate in New Jersey. By purchasing bwin, Amaya would be able to dominate the New Jersey’s gambling market where bwin already has a presence.

However If 888 Holdings manages to acquire bwin, they could become serious competitors to PokerStars in New Jersey.

Bwin put itself on sale last year as their business has seen years of revenue decline. The company explained that there is no guarantee that formal announcement of transaction will be made by GVC.