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The United Kingdom's second largest bookmaker, William Hill, is looking to acquire Australia's second largest privately held bookmaker, Centrebet.
Centrebet originated from Alice Springs, Northern Territory and was the first bookmaker to be licensed in Australia in 1993 and the first bookmaker to go online in the Southern Hemisphere. Centrebet was acquired by its biggest domestic rival, the SportOdds Group in 2003 for the sum of AUD$46.55 million. In 2005, SportOdds merged its Centrebet, SportOdds.com and SuperOdds.co.uk businesses into one entity, known as Centrebet.
William Hill is poised to make an offer for $132m.
Centrebet revealed in March it had received "a number" of conditional acquisition proposals as part of a review of consolidation opportunities, both as acquirer and target. The company said no agreement had been reached and discussions could take several months to conclude, according to the Australian.
British newspaper The Sunday Times said that William Hill, while not thought to be in exclusive negotiations with Centrebet, was poised to make an offer of more than pound stg. 80m.
Will Hill and Centrebet officials are said to still be having discussions while the UK's biggest bookmaker, Ladbrokes, and Austria's bwin, are also believed to be interested.
Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
