Poll: Who is best placed to acquire bwin.party?

The race to take control of bwin.party appears to be entering the final furlong with three different parties having made their intentions known over the past few days.

With the likes of Ladbrokes, William Hill and Playtech all thought to have decided against potential bids, bwin.party is now left to weigh-up proposals from GVC Holdings, 888 Holdings and reported joint-bid from GVC and Amaya Gaming.

Although not all details are known, it is thought GVC’s solo non-cash play would see the firm leverage bwin.party’s gaming division and large sportsbook customer database. It is unlikely to have much use for bwin.party’s poker or US businesses while its intentions of payments arm Kalixa is unclear.

The firm has a clear recipe for success as was displayed during its turnaround of Sportingbet where it stripped out unnecessary costs and returned the operation to a solid financial footing and period of strong growth.

888 meanwhile has made a part-cash and part-paper offer and would have its eyes firmly focused on bwin.party’s sportsbook platform and PartyPoker liquidity. There may also be synergies to be found between the operators’ US-facing businesses while 888 currently powers bwin.party’s bingo operation.

The reported entry of Amaya into the mix gives bwin.party, and for that matter 888, something else to think about. It’s been suggested that the deal would see Amaya assume control of bwin.party’s poker business, and one would assume its US operations, while the remainder would be held in a vehicle jointly-owned by GVC and Amaya.

But with no significant cash offer on the table, bwin.party shareholders will be left to weight-up which deal offers them the greatest value with significant holdings in GVC or 888 on offer.

With this in mind, this week’s eGaming Review poll asks which of these three offers is best placed to secure bwin.party. Have your say on the right-hand side of the page.