UK's Playtech mulls deals in online gambling, trading businesses

(Adds details, background)

By Esha Vaish

Aug 27 (Reuters) - Playtech Plc (LSE: PTEC.L - news) , the online gaming and betting software provider founded by Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi, is still hungry for acquisitions even after having spent over $1 billion this year on its foray into forex trading.

Isle of Man (Swiss: MAN.SW - news) -based Playtech has made three acquisition with the aim of carving a niche in currency trading, while the gambling industry consolidates to combat higher taxes and tougher regulation in Britain.

"We definitely intend to continue considering certain additional M&A opportunities going forward, for both gaming and online CFD trading," Chief Executive Mor Weizer told Reuters.

CFD, or contract-for-difference, trading allow a buyer to trade without actually owning the underlying asset.

Playtech earlier this year put skin in the forex trading market, where the sudden removal of a long-held ceiling on the Swiss franc in January has spurred M&A activity.

The company bought a majority stake in TradeFx and then strengthened its hand by then snapping up Plus500 Ltd (Stuttgart: P55.SG - news) and Ava Trade.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) funded the first two deals with cash and secured a 200 million euro revolving credit facility at the time of the third. Its has since then secured an additional 40 million euro unsecured facility to fund growth initiatives.

"I think given the size and position of Playtech, we can afford to do larger acquisitions," said Weizer, who has led Playtech for more than eight years.

He declined name possible targets or a price or even when the company would make an acquisition.

Playtech, which has a market value of about 2.9 billion pounds ($4.3 billion), had cash and cash equivalents of 780.3 million euros ($881 million) as of June end.

Betfair Group Plc (LSE: BET.L - news) and Irish rival Paddy Power Plc (LSE: PAP.L - news) , both licensees of Playtech, on Wednesday agreed to a 5 billion pound merger, to stake a claim to leadership of Britain's online gambling market.

Playtech said the deal would boost its prospects as the 2.3 billion pound wager by its customer Ladbrokes (LSE: LAD.L - news) to combine with bookmaker Gala Coral had done.

"We definitely see a further opportunity for Playtech to further extend and support companies in the process of their merging," Weizer said.

Ladbrokes, on announcing its merger, bought out partner Playtech from a digital marketing service deal. Playtech, which should benefit from the larger footprint of the merged entity, has taken a 9.7 percent stake in Ladbrokes.

Playtech's stock was down 1.8 percent at 875 pence at 1123 GMT on the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) . Up to Wednesday's close, it has rise 12 percent since its first acquisition in April. ($1 = 0.6460 pounds) ($1 = 0.8856 euros) (Editing by Anupama Dwivedi and Savio D'Souza)