Playtech takeover battle becomes two-horse race

JKO, the consortium headed by former Formula One team owner Eddie Jordan, entered the race to acquire Playtech, only to find that one of its rivals had retired from the contest. Despite already being the second largest shareholder Gopher Investments has decided to honour an earlier commitment to buy Playtech’s financial trading arm Finalto for £185m. With JKO needing to make an offer at least 10% higher than that of initial bidder Aristocrat Leisure, it seems the Australians are sitting in pole position. The Aristocrat offer valued Playtech at around £2.7bn and talks with JKO have not yet resulted in any offer being made.