American casino operator MGM Resorts International has reportedly announced that its campaign to acquire Entain has come to an end after investors in the prominent iGaming and sportsbook firm rejected its latest takeover offer.

According to a Tuesday report from the Bloomberg news service, the Las Vegas-headquartered firm behind venues including the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, MGM Grand Las Vegas and Empire City Casino had its $11.1 billion attempt to buy the British operator of such iGaming brands as Bwin, Ladbrokes, PartyPoker and SportingBet rejected a little over two weeks ago. This rebuff purportedly came amid investor concern that the proposition was undervaluing the London-listed company formerly known as GVC Holdings by as much as 7%.

Abiding association:

MGM Resorts International reportedly used an official Tuesday filing to declare that it had decided to cancel its pursuit of Entain ‘after careful consideration and having reflected on the limited recent engagement between the respective companies regarding [the] rejected all-stock proposal’. However, the Nevada firm’s Chief Executive Officer, Bill Hornbuckle, purportedly explained that the pair would continue to partner through their the Roar Digital joint venture to run the BetMGM online sportsbetting service in multiple jurisdictions across the United States.

Read a statement from Hornbuckle…

“BetMGM, our United States sportsbetting and online gaming venture with Entain, remains a key priority for the company as we continue to leverage our preeminent physical gaming, entertainment and hospitality platform to expand digitally. We believe that BetMGM has established itself as a top-three leader in its markets and we remain committed to working with Entain to ensure its strong momentum continues as it expects to be operational in 20 states by the end of 2021.”

Prudent position:

MGM Resorts International furthermore reportedly proclaimed that it ‘is committed to being a premier global omni-channel gaming and entertainment company’ but was unwilling to increase its bid for Entain owing to a desire to ‘maintain a disciplined framework while evaluating a range of compelling strategic opportunities.’

Testing times:

Bloomberg reported that the decision from MGM Resorts International has capped off a difficult month for Entain as the Isle of Man-based firm is facing similar opposition to its own plan to acquire smaller Baltic-facing rival Enlabs AB. The company is purportedly furthermore on the hunt for a new Chief Executive Officer after Shay Segev recently announced his impending departure to take up an analogous post with the DAZN global sports streaming platform.