Online gambling platform technology company Playtech plc (LSE:PTEC), controlled by Teddy Sagi, is vying with bookmakers William Hill and Paddy Power for the purchase of UK gambling software company OpenBet.
OpenBet's owner Vitruvian Private Equity, is asking £300 million ($427 million), having bought the company five years ago from Rupert Murdoch's NDS for £208 million ($296 million).
Acquiring OpenBet would provide major leverage for Playtech's online sports gambling operations. Financing the acquisition would be no problem with over $1 billion in its coffers looking for strategic investments.
However the "Gamingintelligence" website calculates that Sagi wants an upside of a multiple of 12 to 13 on any acquisition, meaning he is unlikely to be prepared to pay more than £200 million for OpenBet an offer that Vitruvian, which paid more than that sum for the acquisition five years ago - would be unlikely to accept. Sagi wants OpenBet but not at any price.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 1, 2016
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