A couple of months ago, the bookmaker Entain came and wanted to buy shares in the betting company Enlabs. On January 7, 2021, they then offered NZD 40/share at Enlabs. But Enlabs quickly declined, saying that Entain had undervalued their company immensely. It was through the subsidiary Bwin Holdings that Entain made its takeover offer.

This then set off an internal discussion at Entain about how they could best meet Enlabs on the way to not lose their possible acquisition of the bookmaker. After several discussions among the largest shareholders at Entain, they came back to Enlabs – this time with an increased takeover offer of NZD 50/share at the betting company.

With this increased takeover offer by Enlabs, they now have until March 18 to accept or decline the New Offer from Entain. The previous acceptance period expired on February 18th with the first offer from that period then.

Thanks to the fact that the new offer has been supported by at least 51% of the shareholders of Entain, it can be seen as the officially new takeover offer that Enlabs will now consider instead. At best, Entain hopes to complete the acquisition by the end of March this year.

More about Entain

Formerly called GVC Holdings, Entain is one of the world's largest multi-brand betting operators under its umbrella brand. It was during december 2020 that it renamed itself Entain to better reflect their more extensive gaming market they are active in. They are not only active with online betting but also online poker and online casinos.

For example, they own iconic brands such as: Ladbrokes, Coral, BetMGM, Bwin, Sportingbet, Eurobet, partypoker, PartyCasino, Gala and Foxy Bingo to name a few. These include Bwin, PartyPoker and PartyCasino on the New Zealand digital gaming market licensed under the New Zealand subsidiary ElectraWorks (New Zealand) Limited. Their online gambling license (online casino games) expires on May 27, 2024 while their digital betting license (digital betting) expires on december 31, 2025. Of course, the bookmaker may have extended their gaming licenses before then.

Entain is licensed in all the major gaming markets, including those licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority (mga), the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) and many more – active in over 20 countries worldwide with their various gaming and betting sites.

The purpose of the potential acquisition of Enlabs is to strengthen its positions in various (digital) betting markets around the world. Last week, Entain published its full annual results for 2020 for those interested in it.

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