Victor Chandler Expanding With Shops
Victor Chandler, the British bookmaker and owner of several other gambling-related business ventures, has initiated the fist phases of an expansion plan that could double his business within the next two years. Chandler announced on Friday that he had bought Sports Bookmakers, which has a chain of 28 betting shops, and he plans to open ten more betting shops in addition to those recently acquired. Chandler also revealed that he intends to open a shop in London's Square Mile that offers fixed-odds betting on financial markets. Chandler said, "I think the market is growing. I think we will also be able to offer extensions of the product which will make it more attractive. We aim to double the size of the business within the next two years at a minimum."
U.S. Consortium May Outbid MGM Mirage
The Sunday Times reports that a consortium composed of gaming developer Waterford Group and the boards of Kerzner International (KZL) and real estate investor Starwood Capital met on Sunday to discuss making a £288 million bid for Wembley that would trump MGM Mirage (MGG)'s current offer. Calling itself BLB, the consortium could propose its offer as early as this week now that Kerzner and Starwood have completed their due diligence on Wembley. On March 10th BLB bought 2.8 million shares in Wembley (8 percent) from Active Value Fund Managers at 800 pence per share. The consortium also said at that time that it had an agreement to buy an additional 15 percent of Wembley and might bid for the whole group. The anticipated bid from BLB could be as high as 800 pence per share, while MGM Mirage's current bid is for 750 pence per share.