Party Gaming to Purchase Sports Betting Group

According to the British newspaper The Observer, Party Gaming, the London registered gaming group, is ahead of the pack in its bid to buy Victor Chandler group, which is mainly involved in sports betting. The group also runs an online casino and has reportedly several poker links. The two companies or both Gibraltar based.

Victor Chandler Group is quite reputable and very well established. The present boss is Victor Chandler and his grandfather founded the group. He was also Victor Chandler. Zeus Capital, the corporate finance firm, has been retained by the group to examine and evaluate the unsolicited bids being offered.
The Observer newspaper also reports that there are through concerns bdg on the Chandler business and that PartyGaming is only one of them. Victor Chandler Group is said to be worth over GBP 300 million. After offering its stock for sale last year, Party Gaming has plenty of capital (over GBP 500 million) for shopping about, and apparently considers the sport betting business of Victor Chandler to be a proper match to its various acquisitions and last month’s purchase of Gamebookers, which is worth GBP 69 million. 

Victor Chandler as well as PartyGaming sources both refused any comments regarding any possible acquisition.  Reliable sources however, have confirmed to the Observer that PartyGaming is interested saying that negotiations will probably begin in September.

The fifty-five year old Chandler inherited his company when it was struggling after his father’s death. He has done well and put the company back on its feet since. He started the use of phone betting which brought about the present GBP 1.4 billion annual turnover. When Chandler took up residence for the business in Gibraltar in 1996, it took off. This move allowed the group to avoid being taxed on it bets, but also incurred the extreme discontent of Gordon Brown, the then Labour government’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was forced to abolish taxes on bettors’ winnings because of Chandler's success.

Since Chandler receives none of its bets from the United States, it is considered as being a good company for acquisition. This is because it takes no Internet bets from the States where such betting is now being considered as being illegal. A large part of the customers are located in the Far East.

It was by provide good services to heavy bettors that Chandler Group gained its reputation. But now that it his added its Internet business, almost 80 percent of the bets placed come from that source resulting in a larger client base. In addition to it well known sports betting, it has also added poker sites as well as the online casino. In fact, although their identity is not known for sure, two other concerns are also interested in purchasing Chandler.

A strong desire of PartyGaming is to expand its operation so that it is not so dependent on poker. Although it is in the process of successfully diversifying, it still depends to a large extent on its American market. they view a sport betting operation, especially one that draws its customers from Asia and Europe as being a good alternative in serving the firm’s interests.

Back to Online Gambling News - August 2006
Online Casino Latest News
Online Casino News Archive