British land-based and online sportsbook operator Entain has reportedly expressed an interest in buying at least some of the non-American assets of William Hill following this brand’s recent purchase by casino giant Caesars Entertainment Incorporated.

According to a report from the Bloomberg news service, the curiosity from the Isle of Man-based firm comes just months after it was itself the subject of an unsolicited $11 billion takeover approach from MGM Resorts International. This proposition for the operator previously known as GVC Holdings was subsequently rebuffed after the American casino behemoth purportedly refused to increase its initial bid.

American attention:

Las Vegas-headquartered Caesars Entertainment Incorporated reportedly finalized the $5.1 billion takeover of William Hill last month to give it an immediate presence in the United States’ burgeoning land-based and online sportsbetting markets. However, the buyer purportedly now intends to offload the brand’s non-American assets, which encompass some 1,400 land-based betting shops spread across the United Kingdom.

Domestic dominance:

Jette Nygaard-Andersen took over as the Chief Executive Officer for Entain in January and reportedly told Bloomberg that her London-listed firm is now looking at the non-American assets of William Hill including its estate of land-based betting shops in the United Kingdom. The 52-year-old purportedly disclosed that her company already holds a 40% share of the British sportsbetting market courtesy of its Ladbrokes brand and is furthermore engaged in trying to purchase the wagering and media business of Australian bookmaker Tabcorp Holdings Limited for $2.7 billion.

Nygaard-Andersen reportedly disclosed…

“We’re looking at everything, so we’re certainly also looking at whether this could be an interesting opportunity. There is a vast amount of opportunity for us so let’s see.”

Fantastic forecast:

Entain is also active online where it is responsible for the iGaming domains at Ladbrokes.com, Bwin.com, PartyPoker.com, Coral.co.uk, Eurobet.it, GalaCasino.com and FoxyBingo.com while recently spending approximately $436 million to acquire Baltic-facing competitor Enlabs AB. Bloomberg reported that the global online gambling industry is expected to begin posting annual double-digit growth figures to be worth up to a combined $158 billion by 2028 and that this predicted profitability has prompted numerous casino operators, private equity firms and media organizations to get in on the race for a prominent position.

Accelerating attentiveness:

As such and the news service reported that the total volume of gambling-related acquisition or merger deals either pending or completed so far this year has swelled by 33% to $22 billion. It disclosed that some notable examples include the $2.2 billion purchase of iGaming predominant Gamesys Group by land-based casino operator Bally’s Corporation as well as Apollo Global Management Incorporated’s acquisition for just over $6.2 billion of the American assets of Las Vegas Sands Corporation.