William Hill In Talks To Buy 888

[baldidiot]

Online gambling group 888 Holdings has confirmed that bookmaker William Hill has made an approach to buy the firm.Shares in 888 rose more 20% following the announcement of the offer, which values the company at about £750m.


"The board of the company confirms that it received an approach regarding a possible offer for the company by William Hill," 888 said

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31367814

[golfbettingsystem]

Let's hope for the sake of the affiliates it's not another Blue Square if it does happen.

[vinism]

Here's the Reuter's story on it. William Hill isn't messing around.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0VK3SC20150210

[-Shay-]

Here's the Reuter's story on it. William Hill isn't messing around.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0VK3SC20150210

They're low-balling

[Roulette Zeitung]

"William Hill In Talks To Buy 888"

Cads' fighting when ended is soon mended.

William Hill ... scroll down to the bottom ... click on the affiliate button to open the crypt ... Oh ... Affiliates United ... affutd.com ... scroll down to the bottom again ... you see the GPWA seal? ... click on it and look down into the abyss.


USING GPWA SEAL WITHOUT PERMISSION

If you want to dance, you have to pay the band.

Leopold

[sweetbet]

I gave up on both of them many years ago. I just hope they do the right thing by the affiliates.

[Casinorep]

They're low-balling

Definitely. I think 888 is worth a lot more than £750m.

[ocreditor]

A giant's deal, I just hope it'll not hurt affiliates in the long run

[Moonlight Cat]

Nothing good for affiliates. The larger the company, the less it needs the services of affiliates.

[-Shay-]

Nothing good for affiliates. The larger the company, the less it needs the services of affiliates.

Anything that has Will Hill's name on it/associated with it is bad for affiliates.

[marise]

Like attracts like..

[Progger]

Affutd ?...hm a lot of affiliates run away...


http://www.bildercache.de/bild/20150215-213056-738.png

regards

[TomPregon]

I sure hope that for all those affiliates involved, it will be for the better. Although I was actually surprised to see so many 'bad mouthing' towards both of these big boys. I would not work with either of them after reading the stuff here.. Interesting to watch it unfold though.. And, of course, I hope it would be for the better.. So much for the better, that it would be worth it signing up and so on.

[suffolkpoker]

good news all round http://www.cityam.com/209513/888-and...takeover-talks

[golfbettingsystem]

good news all round http://www.cityam.com/209513/888-and...takeover-talks

Always a concern for how affiliates will be treated when there's this kind of thing happening so I agree 100%, good news indeed.

[ocreditor]

Definitely. I think 888 is worth a lot more than £750m.

It seems like 888 also thinks so!

[MMM]

Yep. Seems that the deal is off. They wanted 300pp.

[ocreditor]

Yep. Seems that the deal is off. They wanted 300pp.

Really ?! where did you read this ?

[golfbettingsystem]

Really ?! where did you read this ?

I read similar reports too, the BBC story says as much: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31367814

[mathematician]

The question of valuation is interesting in a general sense.

Take the following two scenarios.

A - bookmaker is bought by a company who intends to maintain and continue to honor the original "lifetime revshare" headlines promises made to affiliates by the bookmaker being bought.

B - the buying company can buy with the intention of refusing to honor such affiliate promises ( because it want's to keep all revshare on the players for itself. )

In effect a sale can produce something more profitable than what was there originally because the sales creates the excuse for the new owner to remove an overhead on player profit.

Would it be possible for a bookmaker business to design itself to capitalise on just that?
Probably yes.
If your aim is to build quickly then sell again to a bigger fish you could run an overly generous affiliate program because you know you have no real intention of honoring your headline promises very long term. Instead you'd be stressing to buyers how much extra cash flow was there once the promoters were shafted.

Any idea to future protect affiliates?

Well it would not be impossible to include terms that described how referred players would be treated in the event of such a future sale. Might there be some credible calc that could produce a figure for a buy out style fee?

Probably pie in the sky dreaming that the bookies would even consider adding in such clauses.

But I guess any that did and pushed them as a thign that made them different / morst trustworthy / more worthy of affiliate effort etc may just gain quite a bit of affiliate love.

Some domino effect then if more affiliate friendly operations start getting all the top promo spots
and webmaster effort.

I do think overall there should be a voluntary code of conduct charter the operators
can choose to opt into or not. It should cover acceptable and unacceptable behavior.
Good programs with strong ethics ( narrows the field a lot there ) would gain benefit from
being included as compliant members.
In time the hope might be that inclusion becomes more and more important to bookmaker program operators.
A little like IBAS for example. It would act liek a badge of trust but this time focussed on the bookie to affiliate relationship as opposed to the bookie punter relationship.

If GPWA wants to do something really useful for affiliates
that could have benefit for decades to come
why not take the lead in designing this charter.
Gain long term advantage for yourselves by helping to make the world a better place.
Help teach the bookies what minimum standards of ethicial behaviour are as it is clear many of them are not born with such understandings natural in their mindsets.


Aim for balanced and fair not lopped to the bookie side
or skewed 100% to the affiliate side.

I find myself meandering yet again
Better shoot on.

Cheers
Mic