William Hill

Leading operator William Hill has received all necessary competition approvals for its £245m acquisition of online gaming group MRG.

The offer to buy MRG through William Hill Holdings was made on October 31 and remains open until January 17.

In a statement, the operator said it had “now been granted approvals from the competition authorities in all necessary jurisdictions. As a consequence, the offer is no longer conditional upon any approvals from authorities.”

It continued: “A duly filled in and signed acceptance form shall be submitted to Danske Bank… in sufficient time before the last day of the acceptance period so that it may be received, in original, by Danske Bank no later than 3pm (CET) on January 17.

William Hill said that, subject to the conditions for the offer being satisfied, settlement is expected to begin on or around January 25.

The bookmaker expects the acquisition to provide access to an international hub in the shape of Malta from which to drive international growth together with deeper operational expertise in new markets. It also drawn to the strong established brands of Mr Green and Redbet, which both have a track record of growth across the geographic portfolio. MRG holds remote gambling licences in Denmark, Italy, Latvia, Malta, UKIreland and Sweden.

Ulrik Bengtsson, William Hill’s chief digital officer, is leading the integration of MRG within the William Hill Group as he has a strong background in working with Nordic online gaming businesses through his time at Betsson, where he was CEO.

MRG’s online-only business will increase the William Hill Group’s share of revenue and profits from online as well as from outside the UK, and reduce William Hill’s exposure to the UK market.