William Hill has agreed to buy Stanley Leisure's betting shops for £504m sterling to become Britain's biggest bookmaker, the two firms said today.
William Hill also said that, as a result of the deal, it was scrapping plans to return £453m to shareholders, and issued a downbeat trading update.
The deal covers 624 betting offices in Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man and Jersey and takes William Hill ahead of previous market leader, Hilton Group's Ladbrokes.
Stanley will now focus on its casinos. Analysts have speculated the deal could prompt a merger of Stanley's remaining casino assets with London Clubs International, as Malaysian casino firm Genting has a significant stake in both.
In this morning's trading statement, William Hill said that in the 19 weeks to May 10, its gross win had been level.
'We've had quite a protracted run of bad horse racing results and bad football results,' the company said. 'And we're looking at tough comparatives up until July,' it added, referring to last year's Euro 2004 football championship, which generated £11m of gross win.
Around £13m of cost savings would be extracted from the Stanley Leisure deal in 2006, including job losses at Stanley's headquarters and £5.5m improved performance at its shops. Between 30 and 50 shops might have to be sold to address competition concerns.
