Ladbrokes and Gala Coral announced an agreement to sell 359 betting shops in the UK for ?55.5 million as a prerequisite for the .45 billion merger.
British regulators required the companies to sell around 350 to 400 shops to protect competition in the UK market as a condition of the merger’s approval.
Ladbrokes Chief Executive Jim Mullen said the sale of the shops “will clear the last significant hurdle to delivering on the merger with Coral, and paves the way for our focus on completion and quickly delivering on the opportunities the merger offers.”
Under the deal, which is conditional upon completion of the merger, bookmaker Betfred will buy 322 shops for ?55 million, while Stan James will purchase 37 shops for ?500,000.
The announced deal has brought an objection from Irish independent bookmaker BoyleSports, which has publicly “communicated its concerns” to the UK Competitions & Markets Authority, which must approve the sale.
BoyleSports said it was disappointed that its larger bid for the shops was turned down by Ladbrokes and Coral governance in favor of Betfred and Stan James. The company said it viewed the purchase of the betting shops, as critical to expanding its operations within the saturated UK betting market, and would express further competition concerns to the CMA.
“BoyleSports, Ireland’s largest independent bookmaker, is disappointed Ladbrokes and Gala Coral have decided to sell their 359 shops to existing UK retail competitors,” the bookmaker said in a press statement. “The BoyleSports bid was higher than the reported sale price, was fully-funded, was cognizant of the changing political and regulatory UK landscape, and could have been completed within two weeks of acceptance.”
BoyleSports owner John Boyle has previously said the company was prepared to pay £100 million in order to acquire Ladbrokes-Coral merger “off-cuts.”
In another matter, Ladbrokes generated some headlines when it removed its eSports betting features from its online sites without explanation.
However, the company clarified that it is not exiting the eSports market, but simply upgrading its eSports offerings and eSports returned to their menu in a few days.
