PLAYTECH delayed a vote on a takeover bid from Australian gambling giant Aristocrat yesterday as a potential bidding war looms with a consortium led by former F1 boss Eddie Jordan.

Isle-of-Man based Playtech, which makes software for gambling companies, announced it had pushed back a shareholder vote on Aristocrat's £2.7bn takeover bid from 12 January to 2 February.

The gambling tech firm was approached in November by JKO, a consortium led by former F1 boss Eddie Jordan and former Ladbrokes executive Keith O'Loughlin.

The pair requested more time in order to explore a possible counter bid for the firm. After the delay in the shareholder vote, the UK's Takeover Panel ruled that the JKO has until 5pm on 26 January to announce the firm's intention to make an offer or withdraw.

Aristocrat is understood to be the current frontrunner after it agreed to a £2.7bn deal with Playtech back in October. The firm yesterday said that it continued to recommend to shareholders that they vote in favour of the Aristocrat offer.

Aristocrat noted yesterday that its offer remained the only firm offer on the table for Playtech. The Australian gambling giant is the only of the bidders to have gained approval to operate in the US.

(c) 2022 City A.M., source Newspaper