(Adds details from sources, background)
By Aastha Agnihotri
Sept 2 (Reuters) - Online gambling company GVC Holdings Plc could go hostile in the 1-billion-pound ($1.5 billion)battle for Bwin.party Digital Entertainment if Bwin'sboard recommends a lower offer from 888 Holdings Plc,the Times newspaper reported the company's chairman as saying.
GVC's board is "not prepared to walk away" from Bwin, theTimes quoted Lee Feldman as saying. (http://thetim.es/1hSLo2W)
"We don't see (going hostile) as necessary right now aswe're offering a higher price and have a better operating trackrecord. That said, we believe GVC should own this asset and wewouldn't exclude any strategy," Feldman told the Times.
Bwin, like 888 and GVC, offers casino, poker, bingo andsports betting.
A person close to the matter said going hostile - that is,going directly to shareholders with an offer - was an option,but GVC would first try to convince Bwin's board that its offerwas superior to that of 888.
888 Holdings stepped up the battle for Bwin on Tuesday bysubmitting a revised takeover proposal to fend off GVC.
888 and Bwin, which has been up for sale since November, didnot provide details of the new proposal but Bwin said it wouldevaluate it alongside with GVC's.
Both proposals comprise a mixture of cash and shares.
Two sources familiar with the matter said 888 was nowoffering about 115p for Bwin, whose shares were trading at 116pon Wednesday.
GVC's offer works to about 129p per share, based on closingshare prices on Tuesday.
The offer from GVC, which owns the Sportingbet brand, valuesBwin at about 1.06 billion pounds, while an offer of 115p pershare from 888 would value it at about 948 million pounds.
888's initial offer of 104.09p in July has already beenrecommended by Bwin's board.
Top-five shareholder Jason Ader and others are supporting888, while GVC has the support of Henderson Global Investors,the person close to the matter said.
Ader and a representative from Henderson Global Investorsdid not immediately respond to a request for comment.
($1 = 0.6531 pounds) (Reporting by Parikshit Mishra and Aastha Agnihotri inBengaluru; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi and Ted Kerr)