The latest online casino news and big mergers

It’s time for us here at onlinecasino.ie to take another look at the most recent online casino news affecting some of our most popular online casino operating companies. As part of the industry wide consolidation process we have previously reported on the two big mergers which have come to light this year, namely the proposed merger between Ladbrokes and Gala Coral and a similar deal between Betfair and Paddy Power. Of these two huge deals it appears that the Ladbrokes/Gala Coral merger has become the most contentious, certainly in the eyes of one of Ladbrokes biggest shareholders Dermot Desmond. Ladbrokes of course are one of the biggest online casino operators as far as Irish casino games players are concerned, but they also own a huge estate of betting shops as do Gala Coral. Although the remaining shareholders have voted overwhelmingly to support the merger Mr. Desmond has vowed to fight on in his opposition to what he believes is effectively a reverse takeover of Ladbrokes by Gala Coral. He is also unhappy about a £75 million contract which the enlarged group appears to have agreed with Playtech to improve their digital operations. One of the outstanding problems with this merger is of course what the Competition and Markets Authority will decide. Many observers believe that the CMA may require the group to sell as many as 1,000 of its combined estate of 4,000 betting shops, and this would clearly lead to a significant drop in profits which may not be easy to compensate for by the synergies anticipated. As to the proposed merger between Betfair and Paddy Power, a deal which took the markets by surprise when it was announced, the waters look much calmer and shareholders in both companies appear very happy. Both of these companies already operate successful online gambling operations, and Paddy Power is probably also the most popular online casino amongst Irish casino games players. The big question at the moment is who will be chief executive of the combined group, although ex Paddy Power man Breon Corcoran has been extremely successful at Betfair and looks to be clear favourite at the moment.