William Hill goes all in on PokerStars

William Hill is in talks with Canada’s Amaya, owner of PokerStars – the world’s largest online poker business – about a £5bn merger. But is it a good idea?

William Hill, Britain's biggest bookmaker, is in talks with Canada's Amaya, owner of PokerStars the world's largest online poker business about a £5bn "merger of equals". The new company would be headquartered in London, with Amaya's CEO, Rafi Ashkenazi, taking the top job.

The deal adds to "the feeding frenzy among bookies", say Peter Evans and Daniel Dunkley in The Times, driven by "rising taxes and a crackdown on fixed-odds betting terminals". Mergers include Paddy Power and Betfair, Ladbrokes and Gala Coral, and GVC and Bwin.party.

"The new company would have 60% of its revenues from online betting, and 40% in land-based' business," says Murad Ahmed in the FT, making it "well diversified across different betting areas", and bringing cost savings of more than £100m.

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Still, the deal is risky, says Nils Pratley in The Guardian. PokerStars faces a lawsuit in the US state of Kentucky that comes with a potentially huge fine. And the combined firm would be too exposed to markets where gambling is either "banned or the rules are so unclear that your local operation can be legislated out of existence".

Overall,"both these companies have bad hands, says James Moore in The Independent. "The best bet for their shareholders? Fold."

Ben Judge

Ben studied modern languages at London University's Queen Mary College. After dabbling unhappily in local government finance for a while, he went to work for The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh. The launch of the paper's website, scotsman.com, in the early years of the dotcom craze, saw Ben move online to manage the Business and Motors channels before becoming deputy editor with responsibility for all aspects of online production for The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News websites, along with the papers' Edinburgh Festivals website.

Ben joined MoneyWeek as website editor in 2008, just as the Great Financial Crisis was brewing. He has written extensively for the website and magazine, with a particular emphasis on alternative finance and fintech, including blockchain and bitcoin. As an early adopter of bitcoin, Ben bought when the price was under $200, but went on to spend it all on foolish fripperies.