Ed Pownall on mergers. And more mergers. And more mergers. And more mergers:

Mergers & Acquisitions are still top of the agenda – soon the gaming industry will be like Amazon if it continues like this. Anyway, next into the M&A snake pit is 888 who have set aside $100,000,000 for European buy-outs – quite why they quote the figure in dollars rather than £s as a British listed company or in Euros where they are looking to buy is anybody’s guess – but some of you lucky operators are going to be cashing in. Good luck!

France had a shaky start to life when they first regulated online gambling by getting too greedy with their taxes. But now they’ve sorted that out and sprinkled a pandemic on the top the figures look pretty rosy – seeing a 22% upward curve.

Remember how a couple of weeks ago we said that Entain’s bid to acquire Tabcorp was unlikely to go uncontested by the other sharks in these increasingly infested M&A waters? Well so it proved as the media’s very own Montgomery Burns, Rupert Murdoch, has come sniffing around the Tabcorp’s metaphorical bum.

Golden Nugget’s, Listed igaming arm has just posted 64% growth for 2020. I hope these figures will highlight that while we are in the business of fun, we are also a serious business.