Online gambling firm GVC could have another go at bwin

“There can be no certainty that an offer for bwin.party will be made by the company. However, the GVC board confirms that it is considering the company's options regarding bwin.party and will update shareholders accordingly,” the statement said.

GVC was previously seen as the frontrunner in the race to acquire the operator, having put forward a joint bid with Amaya Gaming.

However, with 888 having seemingly taken the lead in the race, GVC now faces pressure to up its own bid. GVC has released a statement acknowledging the 888 bid and said it will now consider its options as to how to progress with its own plans.

It made a 110 pence per share offer for Bwin earlier in July along with Canada's Amaya Inc. bwin, which has been at the centre of a bidding war between GVC and 888, accepted a 104.09 pence a share bid on Friday from online casino and poker firm 888 after months of talks with the two sides.

bwin said at the time that GVC's proposal had additional execution risks and the premium it offered was not enough for Bwin's board to recommend it.

Michael Campbell, analyst at Northland Capital Partners, said GVC was likely to come back with a larger offer, but added that it would have to be a minimum of 115-120 pence per share.

"For GVC to win that business, they're really going to have to come back with a quite a bit of a competitive bid, in my own view, and if it's south of 115, 120 I can't see shareholders voting in favour of a GVC deal," he said.

The online gaming industry has seen a flurry of M&A activity as firms expand in order to offset the impact of increasing taxes and tighter regulation.

GVC's joint bid for bwin, a company more than triple its size, would have involved breaking up the firm into units that could then be separately absorbed by GVC and Amaya. The Telegraph newspaper reported on Monday that GVC could consider making another approach for bwin, this time on its own, to remove many of those concerns.

Campbell said he would be surprised if GVC could land the deal without the backing of a company such as Amaya.

888 and bwin were not available for comment, while Amaya was unavailable to comment outside of normal business hours. GVC shares were up 2.7 percent on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning. Shares in bwin were flat, while 888's shares were marginally down.