William Hill closing in on a Centrebet deal?

As mentioned on this blog previously, Centrebet is very keen to be bought out and some of the big boys of the global industry have been sniffing around.

William Hill is believed to have bid A$132m for the company according to this report, although the deal is not exclusive. Ladbrokes and Bwin are still evaluating their own bids. Watch the video on that link to hear the comical pronunciation of Bwin by the Aussie 'never been out of Sydney in my life' presenter.

How does A$132m stack up? In 2003, Centrebet was bought by SportOdds (the Kafataris family) for A$46.55m, although Jupiters Casino Group did say they wanted an unrealistic A$150m for it at the time. IASBet changed hands last year for around A$60m (after Centrebet posted a hostile bid for about half that amount).

The big variation in cost is the value of the AUD vs GBP - back in 2003, the $46.55m was worth less than £20m. Now on the very strong AUD, the A$132m equates to £80m.

Still, it sounds about the right sort of price, considering Con Kafataris would prefer to sit back and retire, rather than worry about day-to-day bookmaking these days.

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