The nature of the latest business decisions made by PokerStars now makes a lot more sense after learning about the recent addition of one of William Hill's top managers to the Amaya Group Inc.
PokerStars owner, Amaya, is reportedly hiring a William Hill merger and acquisition specialist to renew its M&A push, after a failed merger deal with the major UK betting operator, The Sunday Times writes.
Amaya purchased the Rational Group, owner of PokerStars, back in 2014 in a US$ 4.9 billion deal. At the time, the transaction was unprecedented in its scale for the industry. Over the past several years, Amaya has expanded the Stars brand into the online casino and sports betting space.
According to some media reports, the Canadian gambling giant has been in talks to hire William Hill Group Director of Strategy and Corporate Development, Robin Chhabra. According to others, Amaya has already convinced Chhabra into joining its team and he is to become part of the operator later this year.
Chhabra has worked for William Hill for the past seven years. Prior to that, he had occupied the Director of Corporate Development post at virtual sports provider Inspired Gaming.
Leading corporate development departments at major gambling companies, Chhabra has advised executives on M&A matters. Him joining Amaya could easily be seen as a signal for the potential renewal of the operator’s merger and acquisition push.
Last year, Amaya and William Hill entered talks about a £5-billion merger deal that would have created a gambling titan with sports betting, poker, and gaming operations across multiple jurisdictions. However, the deal failed as a result from severe pressure from some of William Hill’s major shareholders.
Source GMB / Casino News Daily
