UK bookmaker William Hill and Spanish gaming company Codere have sold their Italian joint venture business to Intralot, a Greece-based gaming and lottery systems company.
The deal, worth a total consideration of €5.5 million ($8.68 million), includes 55 point-of-sale licenses for outlets across Italy. Intralot also acquires William Hill Codere Italia's Internet operations, which it intends to migrate to its own network. The deal does not include use of the names William Hill or Codere.
Intralot already controls 416 point-of-sale licenses in Italy in addition to 164 additional licenses for non-exclusive points-of-sale. Intralot's 416 operating licenses represents 33 percent of the total licenses that were tendered by the Italian government in 2006. William Hill and Codere's award of 55 licenses is much smaller by comparison.
William Hill says the sale follows a strategic review of William Hill Codere Italia within the Italian sports betting market.
"The number of retail betting licenses won by WHCI was insufficient in scale to provide an attractive long term return," William Hill said in a prepared statement. "Options to grow within Italy through the acquisition of either existing or new licenses were explored, but the cost of acquisitions within the existing regulatory framework in Italy made further investment unattractive."
William Hill says its alliance with Codere remains committed to its activities in Spain, where they have opened eight locations in Madrid, including the country's largest bingo hall.