Caesars set to complete William Hill acquisition by 1 April

Caesars expects to complete its proposed acquisition of William Hill by 1 April after the bookmaker confirmed all necessary regulatory approvals should be obtained in the coming weeks.

In September 2020, Caesars lodged a bid worth £2.9bn (€3.39bn/$4.03bn) to acquire the entire issued and to-be issued share capital of William Hill that it does not already own.

The agreement, which was approved by William Hill shareholders in November, will see Caesars purchase William Hill’s 1.08bn shares for £2.72 each. Caesars said it plans to retain William Hill’s US betting arm, with the rest of the business set to be sold.

Caesars had previously said it had hoped to complete the acquisition during the second quarter of 2021, and an update published today (10 March) by William Hill suggests this timetable is on track.

William Hill said Caesars expects any remaining approvals to be obtained from the relevant US gaming authorities and other gambling regulators on or about 23 March.

In anticipation, Caesars and William Hill have scheduled a Scheme Court Hearing, at which the court will be asked to sanction the acquisition. The hearing will take place on 30 March.

Should the court approve the deal, and Caesars and William Hill satisfy all other required conditions, then the acquisition is expected to complete on 1 April. William Hill’s shares would then be cancelled on 6 April, in line with the terms of the deal.

Apollo Global had also put forward an offer to acquire William Hill, but the bookmaker’s board unanimously agreed to approve the Caesars deal in September.

The acquisition follows Caesars’ acquisition by Eldorado Resorts in a $17.3bn reverse-merger deal, putting 55 casinos under the operator’s control.

Kieran Trippier banned for 10 weeks over betting rules breach, says FA

Kieran Trippier has been banned for 10 weeks and fined £70,000 by the FA following misconduct in relation to breaches of betting regulations. 

The Atletico Madrid right back, 30, was charged by the FA in May and had to withdraw from the England squad in October for the Nations League fixture against Denmark to attend a personal hearing over the allegations. 

These relate to bets placed around the time of his move to Spain from Tottenham in July 2019 - an independent commission was appointed to hear the case, with four of the alleged breaches found proven and three dismissed. 

Trippier's worldwide suspension means he is banned from all football-related activity up to and including Sunday 28 February 2021, meaning he will miss the first-leg of Atletico Madrid's last-16 Champions League tie against Chelsea and currently a total of 12 games for his club. 

With the present fixture list, his first game back will be against city rivals Real Madrid on March 7 and he will be available to Gareth Southgate for March's 2022 World Cup qualifiers and Euro 2020 in the summer. 

An FA statement read: 'The Atletico Madrid defender denied seven alleged breaches of FA Rule E8(1)(b), which were said to occur during July 2019, and requested a personal hearing.

'An independent regulatory commission was appointed to hear the case, with four of the alleged breaches found proven and three dismissed during a subsequent personal hearing.

'The independent regulatory commission’s written reasons for its decisions and the associated sanction will be published in due course. 

'The suspension, which includes all football and football-related activity, is effective worldwide from today (Wednesday 23 December 2020) following an application to FIFA.'

Trippier was accused of breaking Rule E8(1)(a)(ii) and Rule E8(1)(b) of the FA's Betting Rules which state players cannot place a bet relating to football or provide relevant confidential information to anyone who could bet on a scenario. 

FA Rule E8(1)(b) states: 'Where a participant provides to any other person any information relating to football which the participant has obtained by virtue of his or her position within the game and which is not publicly available at that time, the participant shall be in breach of this Rule where any of that information is used by that other person for, or in relation to, betting.'

The 30-year-old moved to Spain after four years at Spurs. The defender played a significant role in the club's rise under Mauricio Pochettino and his final game for the club came in the 2019 Champions League final. 

Trippier has also been capped 25 times by England and played a significant role in Gareth Southgate's side during their 2018 World Cup run to the semi-finals.

The right-back scored a brilliant free-kick early on in the last-four clash against Croatia, who came back to win the tie 2-1 in extra-time. 

He also captained his country for the first time in the 3-0 friendly victory against Wales in October, describing it as the 'biggest highlight of his career.' 

National Lottery takes full coverage of ITV Saturday night primetime

The National Lottery has regained its terrestrial Saturday night primetime coverage, securing sponsorship of three back-to-back ITV shows.

Beginning 19 December, the National Lottery will serve as headline sponsor of ITV1’s Saturday night roster of ‘The Masked Singer’, ‘The Voice UK’ and ‘Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’.

The deal represents the first time ITV has allowed a single advertiser to sponsor three of its Saturday night primetime shows.

Sponsorship of ITV Saturday night headline programmes are recognised amongst the UK’s highest costing marketing inventory. Takeaway app Deliveroo is reported to have paid £7 million to sponsor a single series of Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway which achieved record audiences of 11.2 million viewers during 2020.

Mark Trinder, ITV Director of Partnerships, said: “Saturday nights on ITV have come to define quintessential family entertainment, and as we celebrate the return of three of our most talked-about shows – The Masked Singer, The Voice UK and Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway – we’re welcoming onboard our brand new sponsor National Lottery operator, Camelot, for this innovative partnership that will put all the titans of Saturday night TV under one sponsorship umbrella.”

Camelot’s three-show sponsorship with ITV was brokered by National Lottery media planning agency Vizeum. Seeking to secure optimal coverage for the National Lottery, Camelot has tasked creative agency Adam & Eve DDB with developing a new ‘360 creative campaign’ to showcase its ITV sponsorship.

Camelot CMO Keith Moor said: “The National Lottery has been making Saturday night more entertaining for the past 26 years, with every ticket providing a moment of anticipation while also helping to raise around £30 million each week for National Lottery-funded good causes.

“These are ITV’s flagship entertainment shows with the biggest audiences – so there’s a fantastic fit between the two brands with this partnership, and it will only help people to better understand the connection between The National Lottery’s unique purpose and play.”

UK gambling laws review to consider ban on sports sponsorship

A wide-ranging review of gambling laws to be launched next week will consider banning sports sponsorship and limiting online casino stakes among a “reformer’s shopping list” of proposals to overhaul gambling laws, the Guardian can reveal.

The long-awaited review, which could roll back vast swathes of the 2005 Gambling Act 2005, will begin as soon as Monday with an initial call for evidence.

Terms of reference will be published at the same time, offering the first insight into what is in store for the gambling industry as well as campaigners calling for tougher regulation.

Amid mounting concern about gambling’s role in wider society, changes under consideration will include:

• Limits on online stakes.

• Tough affordability checks.

• A testing regime for new products.

• A sports sponsorship ban.

• New powers to tackle the parallel market.

The broad scope is likely to welcomed by advocates for tighter regulation, including people recovering from problem gambling and more than 50 MPs and and peers who have backed stricter controls. But the prospect of a much harsher regulatory climate will be of concern to online casino bosses and bookmakers.

Multiple sources said officials at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which is leading the process, would take aim at almost every area of gambling law, in what one insider termed a “reformer’s shopping list”.

One key area in their sights is regulation of online casino and electronic slot machine games. Gamblers can bet unlimited amounts online, even though some internet-based games such as roulette are no different from those that were available on fixed-odds betting terminals, whose maximum stake was cut for £100 to £2.

Alongside maximum stakes, ministers will consider whether firms should be forced to limit players’ monthly losses and carry out much stricter affordability checks to ensure people are gambling within their means.

It follows a string of high-profile incidents in which problem gamblers were left destitute after losing large sums of money. In one case, an online betting firm accepted a “VIP” gambler’s redundancy payout as proof he could afford to keep betting. In another, high street bookmakers were accused of knowingly allowing a problem user to gamble away compensation for an injury that had left him severely disabled.

Under proposals to be weighed up by the DMCS, new gambling products could also be subjected to a rigorous testing regime that would determine whether they are released on to the market and how much can be wagered on them.

The UK gambling industry’s lobby group, the Betting & Gaming Council, has repeatedly said tightening the regulations too far could fuel parallel market betting operations that have a scant regard for customer safety. But the DCMS will consider giving the regulator, the Gambling Commission, which has admitted it is underfunded, extra financial resources and new powers to tackle illicit operators.

Sources said the review would also consider marketing and advertising, including the possibility of new measures to curb sports sponsorship – including logos on football club shirts – in an apparent response to the “gamblification” of football.

Promotional offers are also expected to form part of the review’s scope, indicating that the government is not satisfied with a joint effort by the industry and the Gambling Commission to address concerns about VIP schemes, bonuses and so-called “free bets”.

VIP schemes, in which gamblers who lose large amounts of money are wined, dined and given financial incentives to keep betting, have been a common feature of high-profile stories about problem gamblers who resorted to crime or took their own lives.

The DCMS is not expected to take on the much-criticised lack of funding for treatment of gambling addiction, indicating that it will be left to the Department of Health and Social Care to address concerns about the availability of help for people with a gambling disorder.

The review is likely to be overseen by the sports minister, Nigel Huddleston, but Boris Johnson is understood to be keen on dialling back the Blair-era legislation that gave rise to the modern UK gambling industry.

Senior officials in Downing Street are also believed to see gambling reform as a vote-winner, as well as the right thing to do. “The PM just sees it as people being exploited and it’s not him,” one MP with knowledge of No 10’s thinking said earlier this year.

Spanish clubs sponsored by betting companies advised to cancel their contracts

Spanish clubs have been told by their country's government that they must end their sponsorship deals with gambling companies.

The letter, signed by minister of consumer affairs Alberto Garzon and seen by Reuters, informs the clubs that contracts with gambling companies will be prohibited once the new royal decree is approved by a cabinet meeting and written into law.

The decree, which affects all sports in Spain, contains a transition period which ends when the current season terminates next May

The letter added that betting companies sponsoring teams and athletes had "contributed to normalising a practice with serious health and social risks which need to be minimised in the field of advertising".

It said athletes' status as role models had led to an increase in gambling among young people aged 18-25, rising from 29% to 40% in the last four years. The amount of money spent by young people on gambling, meanwhile, had risen by 13% annually.

Seven of the 20 teams in Spanish soccer's top division La Liga are sponsored by gambling companies, including Europa League holders Sevilla and six-times league champions Valencia.

Top-flight clubs are already facing serious financial difficulties due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which Valencia president Anil Murthy said had cost the club around 100 million euros in lost revenue.

La Liga president Javier Tebas has spoken out against the decree, saying on Monday that clubs would lose a combined 90 million euros and that the league was trying to increase the transition period to up to three years to help teams acclimatise.

Betsson Announces UK Brand Closures

Betsson is reducing its business presence in the UK further by reducing its licenses to only one after handing back three to the UK Gambling Commission.

The operator has been pulling back from the UK market since 2018 when it closed its offices and now with the remaining license will operate under the Rizk brand exclusively.

With just 3% of Betsson’s business coming from the UK market and with the company saying that with the cost of investments in technology, regulatory compliance and marketing it was prudent that review and downsize its operations in the UK.

B2C Brands such as Guts, Kaboo, Betsafe, Betsson, Casino Euro, Live Roulette, Racebets and Jackpot247 will all be removed from the UK markets.

Sports Personalities To Be Banned Under New Rules For Gambling Ads

The use of sports personalities and other celebrities in gambling related advertising could be banned under new rules that are being considered by the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP), the regulator for setting the code of practices for advertising in the UK.

At present gambling adverts are only be banned if the CAP thought that it was appealing to under 18-year olds, however the CAP is now considering banning adverts that it feels uses adults in the celebrity bracket to attract children to gambling.

Current adverts that feature Tottenham football boss Jose Mourinho, Harry Redknapp and former England striker Michael Owen would all be banned under the new rules.

However a well known actor such as Ray Winstone who is not known to children would be allowed to continue advertising for Bet365.

The possible new rule changes on advertising follows the recent GambleAware research that found that the current content of gambling advertising has the potential to attract under 18s to gambling because of the use of such known celebrities.

Currently the proposals are under public consultation and if they were to be enforced would happen early in 2021.

GVC eyes Portuguese top spot with Bet.pt takeover

GVC Holdings has confirmed that it will return to Portugal by acquiring online sportsbook Bet.pt for an undisclosed sum. 

The FTSE100 betting group announced its latest acquisition as part of its Q3 2020 trading update, which saw GVC increase full-year EBITDA guidance to the £770-790 million range following a rapid recovery across all core regulated marketplaces.

In its trading statement, GVC outlined that its Bet.pt acquisition remained ‘consistent with its regulated market strategy’, as the operator seeks to establish a leading presence within a ‘market which is anticipated to more than double to around €450m by 2023’.

GVC had previously held a Portuguese market presence through its Bwin sportsbook brand but decided to withdraw from the market in 2015 following the approval of Portugal’s amended Gambling Bill, which instantly raised sportsbook turnover taxes from 8 to 16%.

Citing that Portugal’s new gambling tax regime had made its marketplace no longer viable, GVC departed the market alongside a raft of international operators including William Hill, bet365 and Ladbrokes.

A domestic incumbent, in 2016 Bet.pt was the second online sportsbook to be granted a new Portuguese sportsbook licence by regulatory agency Comissao de Jogos do Turismo (SRJI).

Four years on from its legislative overhaul, the Portuguese sportsbook marketplace has seen a number of international operators relaunch their services, including Betclic, Betano, Betway and 888Sports.

“We are pleased to welcome Bet.pt to the GVC Group having been impressed by the quality of the business and its significant growth since launch,” read the GVC statement. “This acquisition is in line with our strategy to grow in new, regulated markets and builds on our strong track record of buying local brands and building them into market leaders.

“Through access to GVC’s content, technology and digital marketing skills, we believe Bet.pt can build on it’s position as a market leader in Portugal.”  

Caesars in advanced talks on £2.9bn William Hill takeover bid

The operator of the Las Vegas casino Caesars Palace has confirmed it is in “advanced discussions” about a possible £2.9bn takeover bid for the UK bookmaker William Hill.

Caesars Entertainment said it had offered 272p a share in cash after scrutinising the company’s books.

The US hotel and entertainment firm said the board of William Hill had indicated the “possible cash offer is at a price level that they would be minded to recommend to William Hill shareholders”.

Should a firm offer be made and receive the go-ahead from shareholders and anti-competition authorities, the deal would be expected to complete in the second half of next year, Caesars said. The US company indicated it would terminate its joint venture with William Hill in the US if interest from private equity group Apollo Management International crystallises into a successful bid - a statement that helped push down William Hill’s share price on Monday.

Tom Reeg, the Caesars chief executive, said: “The opportunity to combine our land-based casinos, sports betting and online gaming in the US is a truly exciting prospect.

“William Hill’s sports betting expertise will complement Caesars’ current offering, enabling the combined group to better serve our customers in the fast-growing US sports betting and online market.”

William Hill declined to comment.

Shares in William Hill fell almost 12% to close at 275.9p on Monday after surging by more than 40% on Friday, when the gambling firm said it had received separate cash proposals from Caesars and Apollol.

Caesars estimates that the enlarged sports and online gaming business over there could generate between $600m and $700m in revenues next year, tapping into a market that could grow to $30bn-$35bn, it said, quoting analysts.

Caesars, founded in Reno, Nevada, in 1937, is one of the largest casino operators in the US and employed 80,000 people at the end of 2019. Its venues are run under the brands Caesars, Harrah’s, Horseshoe and Eldorado. It is best known for running the Caesars Palace hotel on the Las Vegas strip, famed for hosting performers such as Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Elton John, as well as top boxing matches.

Like its UK rivals, William Hill is expanding in the US market, where the supreme court reversed a decades-old ban on sports betting in 2018. It has been struggling in the UK and recorded pre-tax losses in 2018 and 2019 after curbs on fixed-odds betting terminals were introduced.

The company has also been hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The cancellation of big sports events around the world initially led to a big drop in betting activity but the return of sporting competition such as Premier League football on 17 June meant much of the revenue affected by lockdown was delayed rather than lost.

William Hill decided not to reopen 119 branches closed during the coronavirus lockdown but few redundancies were expected as the majority of staff were redeployed. It is left with 1,414 UK branches and employs 12,500 people worldwide, including 8,000 in the UK.

888 confirms Lord Mendelsohn as inbound chairman for critical 2021 review

888 Holdings has filed a notice with the London Stock Exchange, confirming that Lord Jonathan Mendelsohn will replace Brian Mattingley as its designate company chairman.

The appointment of Lord Mendelsohn as new chairman is scheduled to take place at 888’s next annual general meeting in May 2021, with Mattingley officially resigning from all governance duties. 

In its notice, 888 highlighted Lord Mendelsohn’s extensive experience within the gambling sector, having co-founded strategic M&A advisory Oakvale Capital which focuses on igaming, entertainment and media investments.  

A high-profile appointment, Lord Mendelsohn is best recognised as a key adviser to Tony Blair, helping the former PM to execute his 1997 election-winning New Labour campaign strategy.  

 Lord Mendelsohn’s appointment has garnered media wide attention, closely following last week’s announcement by Flutter Entertainment that former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson had joined the company as a regulatory advisor.

UK gambling faces a critical end of year, as the government ramps up preparations to review the 2005 Gambling Act, focusing on improving industry safeguards and consumer standards.

Lord Mendelsohn, commente:: “I am very excited to join the Board of such a world-class gaming operator. 888 is a company that I have long admired during my more than 20 years working with companies in the gaming and gambling industries.

“The Group has a number of very exciting opportunities and I am looking forward to working closely with the Board and the management team to continue to deliver the Group’s growth strategy and generate further stakeholder value. 

This morning’s LSE filing sees Brian Mattingley confirm that he will end his 15-year tenure as a 888 director, having re-established the online gambling group as a FTSE blue-chip enterprise.