MGM Resorts is purportedly lining up another bid to take over the European gambling giant Entain.
Entain has previously rejected a takeover bid from MGM Resorts, who moved to acquire Entain in January 2021. The US-based casino giant made a $10bn (£8.1bn) approach, but Nygaard-Andersen rebuffed the offer saying it was too low.
As reported by the Mail on Sunday, the bid is likely to be revived once the Gambling Commission (GC) has published its long-delayed white paper. This white paper will lay out new rules pertaining to the valuations of UK gambling businesses.
Analysts at Deutsche Bank said that a merger between Entain and MGM Resorts seemed like ‘a fairly obvious combination,’ in a note published last week. MGM’s January 2021 offer was split between cash and shares, and Deutsche Bank said a new bid with additional cash would ‘likely be backed by shareholders.’
Banking news site CTFN described the deal as 'inevitable', with various sources suggesting that MGM was 'constantly weighing up a bid' for Entain. The two companies already own the joint enterprise BetMGM, a prominent US sportsbook.
However, a potential new bid for Entain would have to be significantly higher than the previous one tendered. Entain is now valued at $11bn (£8.9bn), $1bn more than its valuation at the time of MGM’s prior bid.
This all follows DraftKings' attempt to obtain Entain for a staggering $20bn in September 2021.
Entain is the owner of Coral, Crystalbet, Eurobet, Ladbrokes, Neds International and Sportingbet. Its games brands include Foxy Bingo, Gala, Gioco Digitale, partypoker and PartyCasino.
