Paddy Power & Betfair to merge!

Great news

It's more or less a reaction to the Ladbrokes/Coral merger by the sounds of it. Instead of four companies owning 5-10% each of the market share of the industry now two companies will pretty much own a third of it and look to own more. So if they keep growing beyond this competition is going to be pretty stifled. There was already the possibility of Ladcoral going to court because the merger was so big and this is bigger. Don't know how anyone could see it as good news tbh.

bradlente wrote: »

It's more or less a reaction to the Ladbrokes/Coral merger by the sounds of it. Instead of four companies owning 5-10% each of the market share of the industry now two companies will pretty much own a third of it and look to own more. So if they keep growing beyond this competition is going to be pretty stifled. There was already the possibility of Ladcoral going to court because the merger was so big and this is bigger. Don't know how anyone could see it as good news tbh.

Has nothing to do with the Ladbrokes and Coralmerger. Ladbrokes are a massively struggling company and are somewhat of an irrelevance to these big boys. To a lesser extent coral. That merger was two struggling comapanies merging to survive. This is two very succesful companies merging to take over the gambling world (I say merge lightly, as PP is clearly bigger).

This has little to do with the saturated UK and Ire market. PP has a massive business in OZ with another in Italy. Betfair has one in America. Both are trying to match what bet365 are doing, expanding into all these shady places like China, Russia, Eastern Europe etc. Basiclaly the race is between 365 and PP/BF to take over. Lad/Cor and Hills lag a good way behind. The rest are confined to whatever crumbs the Uk and Ireland gives them

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Has nothing to do with the Ladbrokes and Coralmerger. Ladbrokes are a massively struggling company and are somewhat of an irrelevance to these big boys. To a lesser extent coral. That merger was two struggling comapanies merging to survive. This is two very succesful companies merging to take over the gambling world (I say merge lightly, as PP is clearly bigger).

This has little to do with the saturated UK and Ire market. PP has a massive business in OZ with another in Italy. Betfair has one in America. Both are trying to match what bet365 are doing, expanding into all these shady places like China, Russia, Eastern Europe etc. Basiclaly the race is between 365 and PP/BF to take over. Lad/Cor and Hills lag a good way behind. The rest are confined to whatever crumbs the Uk and Ireland gives them

I wouldn't call the ladbrokes and coral merger an irrelevance. Ladbrokes are a huge company and yes they are struggling but their turnover per year is huge. They have the name behind them, if they sorted out their website and marketing they could be a huge threat. They own betdaq too so there is an opportunity to do something with that to rival betfair.

Hulk Hands wrote: »

I think Ladbrokes are only huge though because of their insane number of shops, some of which are more of a hinderance to them than a help because of the high rents. With legislation on FOBT'S going to come in eventually, and the fact that shops are dying, a huge part of their business is going to go. Their share price was down to £1 and it was only that due to the hope of a merger. The fact that a two bit company like Coral have the upper hand in a merger says it all imo. I heard they had given up on Betdaq too, that it was dead in the water. Must go down as one of the worst acquisitions of all time that one. I might be wrong, but I can only see Bet365 getting bigger, and maybe PP challenging. Rest bar Hills maybe are going nowhere imo

No doubt about it, they were happy for years sit on their laurels counting the money they were making due to the amount of shops they have. They really missed the boat on the online betting and by the time they scrambled to catch up they were so far behind it was a joke. It's do or die for them now I think but it isn't a lost cause.