William Hill Buys Out Playtech for £424m

William Hill Plc will pay £424 million to acquirethe Playtech's share in a joint venutre they maintained together in order to strengthen its control within the online gaming market. This will be achieved by excercising a call opton to acquire Playtech's 29% stake in William Hill Online. It will mark the second deal for the company in the last few months. As recently as October, William Hill paid £460 million for the Spanish and Australian operations of Sportingbet. These deals will both provide William Hill with ample opportunities for growth within the online gaming market.

The move is arguably the natural move to make for the company after William Hill had problems with Playtech involving the walkout, strike and departure of the William Hill Online Israel-based management team in 2010. The mass staff walkout in Tel Aviv was triggered by the departure of Chief Marketing Officer Eyal Sanoff, rumored to have been dismised as a result of William Hill's supposed plans to depart from a deal made with Playtech two years earlier.

It now appears that William Hill has a bright future with the company going from strength to strength. 2012 was a really great year for William Hill with half-year profits rising from £184.7 to £277.5, million an increase of 48%. Full-year profits also rose by around 12% (£1.3 billion as opposed to £1.1 billion the year before). It appears as if this winning streak will continue with the buy-out and plans to expand overseas within the near future.