William Hill has exercised its call option on Sportingbet’s Spanish-facing business, Miapuesta.es.
Miapuesta.es is now displaying an ad informing players that “We are becoming more – now Sportingbet is William Hill”, and inviting them to register over at WilliamHill.es for a welcome bonus of up to €100 and a €50 free bet, indicating the bookie intends to migrate the players across and operate under just its own brand in Spain.
The acquisition follows William Hill CEO Ralph Topping informing analysts at the group’s H1 earnings call early last month that “you should assume” the company was going to exercise the six-month call option on the customer list and customer balances of Miapuesta.es. The option formed part of its £459.4m purchase of Sportingbet Australia, which completed in March of this year.
According to figures presented by the bookmaker during its H1 results, the addition of Sportingbet’s estimated 12.5% share in Spain to the 10.7% share of WilliamHill.es would give the William Hill Group around 23% of the online sports betting market in Spain.
The transaction should also establish William Hill as one of the big three online betting operators in the country, which based on its estimates would carve up more than 93% of the market between them, led by Bet365 with a commanding 46% share and ex-Real Madrid shirt sponsor Bwin with 24%.
Sportingbet was once among the top two operators in Spain - generating revenues from the territory of €35.4m in 2010 and €30.7m in 2011 - but lost ground to its rivals last year when a legal injunction forced it to switch off the business for several months ahead of the regulated marketing opening in June 2012.
Miapuesta.es revenues dipped to €14.9m last year as it also fell to an operating loss of €10.2m, impacted by a €17m tax payment sprung on the company as part of the Spanish government’s €150m retrospective tax grab from foreign operators as they waited for licences last summer.
GVC Holdings has been running Miapuesta.es since March of this year when it acquired the rest of the Sportingbet business operating mainly in unregulated dot.com markets as part of the Hill’s transaction.
Article written by Stephen Carter
