Since news that 888 Holdings and GVC Holdings with partner Amaya gaming were bidding for bwin.party broke, there’s been a lot of speculation on the nature of the negotiations.
But bwin.party chairman Philip Yea has told analysts and investors not to “make assumptions” about how the potential sale would be structured.
Yea was asked if the company was up for sale as a whole, or in smaller pieces, during a call with analysts.
Yea said the “focus of the board has been on improving the group’s core business and exploring industry consolidation” opportunities.
GVC and Amaya’s joint bid approach has led to speculation that Amaya would take on bwin party’s activities in regulated markets, while GVC would take on bwin’s business in unregulated markets.
Bwin officials have said they will decide on the competing bids in the coming weeks.
The announcement of the competing bids has led to a surge in bwin’ stock value and set off speculation on which of the two bidders—with GVC possibly backed by Amaya’s ability to pay cash—will take over the company.
In another move, bwin announced it will closing WPT.com to focus on its Party Poker and bwin poker brands.
In an email to customers, the company said: “Bwin.party has made the decision to focus our online poker efforts entirely on our lead brands: PartyPoker and bwin poker. This has resulted in the decision to close our WPTPoker.com site.
The WPT site will close June 3, the company said, but players have three months to make withdrawals.
The move may be designed to cut losses for bwin, which recently announced year-on-year revenue losses for the opening three months of 2015.
