Rumors are swirling over some potential major online gambling mergers in Europe. The London Evening Standard reported this morning that online gambling giant bwin.Party might potentially get taken over by either William Hill or land-based giant Wynn Resorts.

Sportingbet, at present being courted by Ladbrokes, rose 3.3p to 53.7p as investors bet that a deal is imminent. Sportingbet's rival GVC Holdings said it is in exclusive discussions with the company about buying its Turkish language website. According to Evolution Securities, a sale of the site would "pave the way for a Ladbrokes takeover [of Sportingbet]."

Recycled bid speculation also pushed Bwin.party Digital Entertainment into first place on the FTSE 250 winners' list. The ludicrously named gambling group is rumoured to be in the sights of either bookmaker William Hill or a predator from across the Atlantic, Wynn Resorts. Gossips named a price of up to 170p per share for an approach: that's already 10p more than they were dreaming about last Friday. Bwin.party, formed from the merger of PartyGaming and Austria's Bwin, surged 7.4p to 113.1p.

UBS also gave the stock a boost, noting that it is trading at levels last seen during the market panic which ensued after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. That is, according to the big-hitting bank, despite the prospect of €55 million (£48.3 million) of "merger synergies", the demise of a major rival (Full Tilt Poker) and better-than-ever prospects for re-entering the US poker market.