Entain can afford to be choosy in the suitors it accepts. Since the start of last year, the owner of the Ladbrokes and Coral brands has rejected takeover approaches from MGM Resorts, its joint venture partner in the United States, and from DraftKings, the No 3 player in the American market. And the two players at the table have been steadily upping the ante: a cash-and-shares offer of £28, the second of two proposals put forward by the latter in September, was way higher than the £13.83 all-share deal proffered by MGM nine months earlier.
The prize on the table is BetMGM, that high-growth American business for which Entain provides the technology that powers its games and products. Its value was revealed in
