GAMING NEWS
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Bet365 Family UK’s Largest Tax Payer
JKO leave Playtech Deal To Aristocrat
Bet365 owners the Coates family and the boss
JKO Play the Eddie Jordan company that was interested in making a bid for industry software provider Playtech has announced they no longer will continue with making any offer for the company.
of the online gambling firm Denise Coates, paid £481.7 million in taxes last year to the UK exchequer according from the latest Sunday Times Tax List. That makes the Coates family the highest tax payer in the country for the third year in a row. However it is not the largest tax bill they have paid, back in 2020 the family had a tax bill of £573 million which so far is the largest ever tax payment to the UK as an individual or family business. The tax payment by the owners of Bet365 dwarfs the second place payer Chris Rokos a hedge fund manager who wrote a cheque covering his tax bill of £300 million, in total the top 50 tax payers in the UK pay £3.7 billion which is up from the previous year at £3.2 billion.
Playtech had delayed the general meeting to vote on the Australian machine manufacturers Aristocrat offer of £2.7 billion when JKO wanted to consider an improved offer. The delay was pushed back from January 12 to February 2 as JKO did due diligence, however with a deadline of January 26th looming for JKO to confirm an offer would be forthcoming it has now been announced that JKO will not be doing so. Playtech senior management had already agreed the offer from Aristocrat and passed it to shareholder vote but then JKO appeared as a potential higher offer, the reason why JKO did not go through is not clear, rumours that the company could not generate the required funds to make an offer are abound. However now with Aristocrat being alone now for Playtech the vote will take place by shareholders on the offer, however it is still not clear if shareholders will vote in favour.
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