William Hill: Caesars Palace-owner in 'sophisticated' talks over ₤ 2.9 bn offer

Caesars Entertainment, the Las Vegas casino-owner, states it is in innovative takeover talks with William Hill over a possible ₤ 2.9 bn bid for the bookie.

The US company stated William Hill's board had shown it is minded to recommend its money bet9ja's welcome offer of 272p a share.

William Hill has likewise received a takeover method from US personal equity firm Apollo.

But Caesars said if William Hill picked Apollo, it would jeopardise a joint venture in between the companies.

Caesars primary executive Tom Reeg said: "The chance to combine our land based-casinos, sports betting and online gaming in the US is a really interesting possibility.

"William Hill's sports betting knowledge will match Caesars' present offering, enabling the combined group to better serve our consumers in the quick growing US sports betting and online market."

On Friday, William Hill confirmed that it had actually gotten two takeover techniques, which sent its share rate soaring by 42% to 312p.

Caesars said its offer was almost 58% higher than William Hill's share cost on the day before the US company made its first method on 2 September.

It included it was also above the betting business's share cost on Thursday recently, before its disclosure of the two approaches triggered its share price to rise.

But David Cumming, primary investment officer for equities at Aviva Investors, stated offers for William Hill might overtake the 312p level its shares ended at on Friday.

He told the BBC's Today program: "The view is - and we do hold some William Hill so it [has] some interest here - the 40% rise on Friday, offered comparative appraisals in the US, it is possible that the yohaig code quote is available in at a greater level than the closing price we saw then so there still may be some benefit."

Apollo - which is likewise one of 2 companies in the final going to purchase UK grocery store Asda - is yet to publish information of its possible offer for William Hill.

However, Mr Cumming said he believed Caesars was the most likely victor "because it already owns 20% of William Hill's US business and so it ought to have some synergies".