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….

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has openly voiced his support for a revised plan to rescue the US state’s gambling resort of Atlantic City. Introduced by Christie alongside Senate President Steve Sweeney and Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian, the plan combines elements of previous strategies to help save the struggling gambling hub. Christie, who is keen for the plan to be cleared by the end of February, said the strategy would allow the state to restructure city debt and terminate municipal contracts, including those with labour unions. New Jersey already controls the city’s budget, hiring and other finances, but previous…

bwin party has confirmed reception of GVC’s acquisition offer this morning, the latter also stated it had approached bwin party with an offer at 110p per share, valuing the business at around €900m (€1.3bn/$1.4bn). bwin party’s announcement confirms media reports published earlier in the week, both groups said they would now work together to secure “acceptance of its (the) proposal and, in turn, making an offer to bwin.party shareholders”. GVC submitted the offer in partnership with Amaya Gaming, which it earlier confirmed it had been working with in order to complete a reverse takeover of bwin.party, although rival operator 888 is also said to…