Amaya shareholders have voted in favour of a proposal to rebrand the company as ’The Stars Group’. Announced last month alongside its first-quarter results, the new name required approval from shareholders in order for the firm to push ahead with plans. Amaya has now said that it expects the name to come into effect from August of this year and will coincide with the relocation of its head office to a new site in the Canadian city of Toronto. Meanwhile, shareholders at the firm’s AGM also voted to approve continuance under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario), with Amaya to become…

Amaya Gaming’s former CEO David Baazov has some new walking around money after selling nearly one-third of his stake in the online gambling company. On Tuesday, Baazov (pictured) announced that he’d sold 7m Amaya common shares at C$19 apiece for a total consideration of C$133m (US $99m). The sale represents about 4.8% of the company’s outstanding common shares and about 30% of Baazov’s holdings in Amaya, the parent company of online poker giant PokerStars. Baazov still controls roughly 17.6m Amaya shares, equal to 12.1% of the company. The market applauded the move, pushing Amaya’s stock price up 5.8% to C$20.06,…

The UK’s William Hill and Canada’s Amaya are in discussions that could lead to a £4.6bn all share merger to create one of the world’s largest gambling companies, as the groups become swept up in the wave of consolidation hitting the betting industry. On Saturday, the boards of the two companies confirmed they were in talks in response to press speculation, saying that a merger would create a clear international leader across online sports betting, poker and casino games. The merger would be classified as a reverse takeover, with the smaller group William Hill taking over the larger company, Amaya….

Amaya Gaming, owner of the PokerStars platform, said Friday that former CEO David Baazov has resigned “from all positions” with the company. Baazov took a voluntary leave of absence from his positions as CEO and board chairman following insider trading charges that were made public in March. Baazov pleaded not guilty to the charges stemming from the alleged use of privileged information when trading company shares between December 2013 and the June 2014 deal to acquire PokerStars, the world’s largest poker site, for $4.9 billion. Rafi Ashkenazi, who was appointed interim CEO in March, is now at the helm of…

Rafi Ashkenazi, interim chief executive of Amaya, has said that the company was able to record year-on-year growth across a host of key finances during the three months through to March 31, despite having had to contend with a number of “unexpected challenges” in the period. Revenue in the first quarter amounted to $288.7 million (€254.8 million), which represents an increase of 6% on the $272.3 million posted in the same period last year. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, deprecation and amortisation (EBITDA) was up 8.7% year-on-year to $123.4 million, with net earnings from continuing operations rocketing 138.5% to $55.5…

David Baazov, the embattled CEO of Canadian online gambling company Amaya Gaming, has pled not guilty to the insider trading charges filed against him in March. On Monday, Quebec securities regulator Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) confirmed that Baazov (pictured), two other individuals and three companies had formally filed written pleas of ‘not guilty’ to their combined 23 insider trading charges, each of which carries a maximum fine of up to $5m and up to five years in prison. AMF spokesman Sylvain Theberge told the Canadian Press that the guilty pleas had been received over the past couple weeks and…