888 in May confirmed that it had lodged a bid to acquire the entire issued and to-be issued capital of bwin.party.
However, recent weeks have seen GVC emerge as the frontrunner in the battle to take ownership of bwin.party, with the gaming operator having submitted a joint bid with PokerStars owner Amaya Gaming.
Last week, it was confirmed that GVC had put forward an offer of 110p per share to acquire bwin.party, a bid that values the online operator at approximately £900 million (€1.3 billion/$4.1 billion).
Despite bwin.party having responded positively to the GVC bid, confirming in a statement that it would work with the company to establish a final offer, reports over the weekend suggested that 888 will now make a last-ditch effort to persuade bwin.party to agree to an alternative deal.
The Sunday Times newspaper reported that 888 can still convince bwin.party to accept its offer, despite having reportedly selected GVC as its preferred bidder.
The report quoted one banker close to the deal as saying that the takeover battle is “still a two-horse race…neck and neck”.