It’s now coming to light that, back in August, the major UK bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair apparently held at least tentative merger discussions with the Stars Group, according to a recent report in the Sunday Times. The talks are reportedly no longer active at this time, and many observers doubt that such a merger would have been permitted by regulators due to anti-competitive laws.
Fittingly, Paddy Power Betfair itself is the product of a 2015 merger between Paddy Power & Betfair.
Stars, having already acquired Full Tilt Poker in 2014, acquired Sky Betting in April of last year in a deal valued at more than $4.7 billion, two of the largest of its acquisitions in recent years. The scale of the entities involved is enormous; the reported merger would have created a firm with an estimated valuation of £8.4 billion ($12.2 billion US), setting it ahead of fellow giants such as GVC.
It’s worth noting that only the Sunday Times, which broke the story, is reporting that the merger discussion has taken place; neither firm has yet confirmed the talks. It may well be that nothing further comes of these discussions.
However, the fact that they apparently took place at all is a sign of the times. The potential for global expansion is huge, with the legal US sports betting market opening up, but consolidation continues to loom as ever bigger giants battle to dominate new opportunities. With UK bookmakers under increasing pressure at home, the time seems opportune for a behemoth like Stars to seek to swallow up yet another one of its international rivals.
