Playtech/Sagi said to be punting on Bwin

Here is an interesting snippet on a live M&A situation.

I hear from excellent sources that Playtech, the gaming software development company, and its largest shareholder, the Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi, are taking a good hard look at Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment, the online betting group.

As we all know, top city hack Paul Murphy of FT Alphaville broke the story last month that Bwin had received an approach from Canada's Amaya Gaming. Murphy also revealed Deutsche Bank was advising the transaction.

Bwin subsequently confirmed it was in discussions with parties about "business combinations". Here is a link to the Bwin confirmation: http://www.investegate.co.uk/bwin-party-digital--bpty-/rns/media-speculation/201411121210138478W/ 

Anyway, I have been told that Playtech/Sagi could very well end up winning the Bwin auction as they may be willing to offer more than 140p a share, which is believed to be the level at which Amaya has indicated it is willing to pay.

Don't get too carried away, though. The situation is fluid and a deal may not happen.

Playtech/Sagi's interest in Bwin comes after they looked at buying Ladbrokes earlier in the year.

Apparently, there is also a private equity firm in the running for Bwin that is looking to make an all cash offer.

Playtech declined to comment but one insider's response was not altogether convincing. When I put the story to a person close to the company, he said "he had not heard that one before" (surprising, given it has already been talked about a bit in the market reports) and then proceeded to dismiss the story as false because Playtech provides software while Bwin is an online gaming operator. Mmmmmmm.....