Following recent press speculation, the online betting and sports content provider confirmed that it has received preliminary approaches expressing interest in formulating an offer for the company, but insisted that there can be no certainty that any offer will be forthcoming and declined to identify the potential bidders. Shares in UKbetting surged 10% on the news.
Earlier this week, Goldbet, the Austrian bookmaker owned by UKbetting, announced the opening of 50 betting shops in former Yugoslavia states. This initiative follows the decision to participate to the auction organized by the Italian gaming regulator AAMS to assign 1,900 new betting shops and 4,400 new betting points. Goldbet, which already holds one of the few Italian internet betting concessions, will be opening 200 betting points.
In separate news, Partygaming pulled out of a £200m all-cash bid for Gamesys because of the impact of the US ban. According to the Financial Times, the world\’s largest online gaming group is considering a new offer based on a mixture of cash and shares.
According to a Regulatory News Service statement, fund manager Fidelity sold its 3% stake in World Gaming after that the shares of the online gambling software provider lost 88% of their value this week.
World Gaming, which generates over 95 per cent of its revenues from the US, has debts for $19.5m due within a year and only $7m in cash.
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