William Hill buys rival Stanley Leisure for £500m
Bookies William Hill today said it had struck an agreement to buy 624 betting shops from rival Stanley Leisure in a deal worth £504m (€736.5m).
The additional sites will be rebranded under the William Hill banner and enable the company to overtake Ladbrokes as Britain’s biggest bookmaker and to establish a presence in Ireland.
The deal, which will leave William Hill with 2,237 licensed betting offices, still requires the approval of shareholders and competition authorities in Britain.
A sale of the betting business, which trades as Stanleybet, would leave Stanley with its casino arm, which owns some of London’s leading gaming halls and 37 sites in cities including Bristol, Liverpool and Birmingham.
William Hill described Stanley’s bookmaking estate as “highly complementary” with its own, as Hills is currently under-represented in areas such as the North West of England and has no shops in Ireland.
The company also pointed out that the profitability of the Stanley estate was “substantially below” its own and offered opportunities for improvement, including through the addition of more fixed-odds betting terminals.
It added: “William Hill has significant experience of developing licensed betting offices and is confident it can upgrade and improve the quality and performance of the acquired estate over time.”
The deal will leave William Hill with around a quarter of the total UK estate of 8,500 sites, meaning it could yet be referred by the Office of Fair Trading to the Competition Commission for a full investigation.
However, the company was hopeful of avoiding a referral.
It said: “The UK betting market is highly competitive and, accordingly, the board believes that any potential competition issues will not be material.”
Earlier this year, William Hill said it had put thoughts of expanding into casinos on the back burner after deciding that gambling deregulation would not offer the hoped-for benefits.
In its last financial year, covering the year to December 28, William Hill said its bookmaking division increased profits by 9% to £165.5m (€241.9m).
