After the successful takeover of William Hill by Caesars Entertainment, the US casino operator is looking at offloading the retail arm of William Hill which includes 1,400 UK high street outlets.
Sell-Off Retail Outlets
If successful, Caesars could raise as much as £1.5 billion in revenue from the sale of the retail outlets in the UK and International operations. After the acquisition between William Hill and Caesars was finalised last September, Caesars made it clear they were going to concentrate on growing William Hill’s presence in the US sports betting industry and would sell off the rest of William Hill’s operations.In an article from an Irish newspaper, Irish-based Boylesports said they would ‘certainly be interested in acquiring some or all of William Hill’s shops, or indeed any other opportunity that makes sense for our business.’ Currently. Boylesports own 45 betting outlets in Northern Ireland, 2 in the Isle of Man, and 21 betting shops in the UK. In 2020 Boylesports purchased William Hill’s retail outlets within Northern Ireland and the 2 shops in the Isle of Man for an undisclosed figure.Boylesports have always been transparent as to their goals regarding their betting outlet ownership in the UK. The ongoing expansion into the UK is a driver for Boylesports to become the largest operator of the UK high street and believes its mantra that the companies offerings represent ‘best in class safe and enjoyable for the betting public’.In a statement, Boylesports said, ‘the sale of William Hill estate presents us with a rare opportunity to achieve the retail scale we have been targeting.’
Competition
However, Boylesports does have stiff competition in the sale of William Hill’s retail outlets with powerhouses such as 888 Holdings, Apollo Global, and Fred Done all showing great interest. Nevertheless, Boylesports are an independent operator and debt-free and could call upon equity funds to finance and outbid the bigger contenders.