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Next stop £2

Then £4

Then £8

Target price £8.88

So if there is no stamp duty on purchases of 888 then why have I and many other investors been charged 0.5% stamp duty by very well known UK brokers when buying 888 shares in recent weeks?

Do you think it is a scam?

Finance Magic

That is not correct

Stamp duty has nothing to do with where the person lives. It does not matter whether they live in the UK or some other place. If the company is registered outside of the UK then there should be no stamp duty. Just as there is no stamp duty for purchases of companies registered in the Channel Islands

888 is registered in Gibraltar and so there should be no stamp duty on purchases of 888 shares

So does anyone know the real reason why many investors have been charged stamp duty when buying 888 shares recently?

Stamp duty was never charged when buying 888 shares before this year

888 is basically trading at a discount of about 90% to the rest of the gambling sector

There is no actual reason for this huge discount

Flutter trades at 3x Revenue

Entain trades at 2x Revenue

Kindred trades at 2x Revenue

Betsson trades at 2x Revenue

And 888 trades at 0.2x Revenue

The 888 share price is therefore trading at a discount of about 90% to Entain, Kindred, and Betsson

It is just a matter of time before 888 trades at a similar valuation to these other companies in the gambling sector

This would give a fair value share price of about £8

And even a very low valuation of 1x Revenue would give a share price of £4

Also, does anyone know why brokers have recently started charging 0.5% stamp duty on purchases of 888 shares ?

There was no stamp duty on purchases last year and now there is

Very strange

888 is registered in Gibraltar and so purchases of the shares should be exempt from stamp duty

Eventually these very undervalued 888 shares will be trading at 1x Revenue or £4

Flutter trades at 3x Revenue

Entain trades at 2x Revenue

Kindred and Betsson also trade at 2x Revenue

And 888 trades at 0.2x Revenue

The 888 share price is therefore trading at a 90% discount to Entain, Kindred, and Betsson

The very low valuation of these world class assets William Hill and 888 are absurd in comparison to the other main gambling companies

The new CEO for 888 will be announced very soon and earnings are on track.

So, as Investec has said there is reason why the share price cannot recover significantly and move towards £2 within the next few weeks and months

There is also zero possibility that the UK licence will be revoked as 888 have now walked away from the discussions with FS Gaming

So 888 has done everything that UKGC wanted them to do, and so there is no possibility of any licence being revoked

The UKGC is also not going to make over 10,000 William Hill employees unemployed for no reason

So, eventually the 888 share price goes to £4 under the new CEO, or it will eventually be taken over for a very cheeky price of about £2 by another big player like Kindred or by a private equity group like Apollo

The wording of the Gambling Act appears to be complete nonsense.

So any investor is free to take a 20% stake in a UK betting company at a potential cost of hundreds of millions, but if the UK Gambling Commission decides later that they don’t like the look of the person they can just take away the UK licence and effectively make a £10 billion company completely worthless?

Is this correct? If so the legislation is absurd.

So Donald Trump could buy 20% of Entain tomorrow, and this would trigger some UKGC rule that could see Entain become worthless because the Gambling Commission did not “approve” of Donald Trump as a person?

Absurd.

Investec analyst Roberta Ciaccia said :

“With the company still fully operating in the UK, a new CEO expected to be announced soon, and what we regard as a clear and reasonable relaunch plan laid out, we see no reason why the 888 share price should not recover significantly once this situation becomes clearer.”

The announcement today said that a new CEO would be appointed very soon, and that 2023 results were on track

So 888 are still on track for 35p eps in 2025 and a low PE valuation of about 10 would suggest a fair target price of £3.50 for the shares

And a low valuation of 1x Revenue or £1.8 billion would suggest a fair target price of £4 for the shares

In response to the news, a spokesman for FS Gaming said: "We were completely surprised by 888's statement and perplexed by how the company has orchestrated this as we remain relatively small public shareholders with no access to any non-public information and we were engaged in dialogue regarding the best strategy to maximise the value of these world-class assets. We will continue those efforts."

So the news about FS Gaming does not really change anything

FS Gaming knew that the 888 share price was hugely undervalued and that has not changed

The 888 share price was still undervalued whether or not Kenny Alexander was appointed the new CEO

As Investec says, 888 will appoint a new CEO very soon and the share price should recover significantly

888 is obviously hugely undervalued in comparison to its competitors and the share price will probably soon reach £3.50 or £4 whether Kenny Alexander or someone else is the new CEO

Gewillia

Thanks

Yes I understand Flutter is very big in the US but 888 is still hugely undervalued against Entain, Kindred, and Betsson

New CEO soon

Most likely Kenny Alexander

On track for Adjusted EPS of 20p for 2023

On track for £2.50 to £3 share price

The huge difference in the valuation between 888 and Flutter can also be seen by looking at the Adjusted EPS for FY 2022

888 had an Adjusted EPS of about 15p in FY 2022 (PE of less than 7)

And Flutter had an Adjusted EPS of about £1.90 in FY 2022 (PE of over 80!)

So, on this earnings valuation, Flutter is over 10x more expensive than 888

And the same absurd difference in valuation can be shown by Price/Revenue ratio

888 has a Revenue of £1.8 billion and a Market Cap of £450 million (0.25x Revenue)

And Flutter has a Revenue of £7.7 billion and a Market Cap of £27 billion! (3.5x Revenue)

So, on this Revenue valuation, Flutter is about 14x more expensive than 888

There is no good or satisfactory reason for these huge extremes in the valuation between the largest gambling company Flutter, and the third largest gambling company 888

FS Gaming, and Kenny Alexander, and activist investor HG Vora, must have seen and calculated that 888 is hugely undervalued

If 888 was trading at a similar valuation to Flutter, the 888 share price would be somewhere between £10 and £14

TerryMC

You are just talking nonsense

888 has said they will only resume dividends when debt is down to 3x earnings and they expect that to happen in 2025

Revenue is not an unreasonable valuation metric for gambling companies but it should of course only be used in addition to all of the other valuation metrics. Bookmakers or gambling companies like 888, Flutter, and Entain, have a fairly simple business model. Punters put on their bets and on average they only get about 90% or 95% of their money back in winnings. So the higher the turnover the higher the profits will be for the bookmaker. And it is not just Flutter that trades at 3x Revenue, or Entain at 2x Revenue. Take a look at some of the other large listed gambling companies like Kindred or Betsson. They also trade at about 1.5x Revenue or higher.

So 888 is the exception in comparison to all of the others as it is only trading at 0.25x Revenue. There is not really any good reason for this huge undervaluation and presumably FS Gaming and the others who have taken big stakes have also seen this.

Yes the market may be worried about the debt but take a look at Flutter and all of the other gambling companies. They also have large debt but that is how these companies grow in this industry. They take over other companies and they have to take on debt to do this.

888 can easily manage the debt as it is easily covered by profits and cash flow, and so I am quite confident that 888 can reach their target of 35p eps and 3.5x debt in 2025. And when they do reach these targets the share price will probably be over £4.

TerryMC

Get a life

Analysts are forecasting eps of 10p for 2023

And eps of 20p for 2024

And eps of 30p for 2025

And the company are forecasting eps of over 35p for 2025

And a debt to ebitda ratio of less than 3.5 in 2025

The new CEO will probably be announced very soon and it will most likely be Kenny Alexander and his team from Entain

After the announcement the 888 share price will probably be over £2

And when the eps is 30p the 888 share price will probably be over £4

Telegraph article says FS Gaming and Kenny Alexander are close to taking control of 888

Would not be surprised to see the 888 share price at £2 if this news is confirmed

Kenny Alexander is the man who built GVC from a £30 million AIM share in to Entain, a multi billion pound FTSE 100 company

And expected earnings per share of over 35p in two years should bring the 888 share price to over £4

And even £4 is only 1x Revenue for 888

Entain trades at 2x Revenue, and Flutter trades at 3x Revenue

So it would be quite possible to see a 888 share price of £8 within two years

It is certainly looking very good for shareholders of 888

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/24/kenny-alexander-gambling-king-take-control-888/

These will eventually be priced in a similar way to their two main competitors Flutter and Entain

Flutter trades at 3x Revenue and Entain trades at 2x Revenue

2x Revenue valuation for 888 gives a price of £8

3x Revenue valuation for 888 gives a price of £12

The debt here is easily manageable and the other main competitors Flutter and Entain also have very large debts but no one seems concerned about them

Kenny Alexander prepares for coup at 888

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/18/kenny-alexander-888-takeover-william-hill/

Kenny Alexander prepares for coup at 888

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/18/kenny-alexander-888-takeover-william-hill/

The most obvious reason why the former GVC/Entain executives Kenny Alexander and Shay Segev have taken a very big stake in 888 is because they can obviously see how hugely undervalued 888 is in revenue terms

That is also the most obvious reason why investors like Parvus Asset Management and HG Vora Capital have recently bought very large stakes in 888

All of the other publicly listed gambling companies trade at a valuation of at least 1.5x Revenue

The largest listed gambling company is Flutter, and it trades at about 3x Revenue

The second largest Entain trades at about 2x Revenue

And other large listed gambling companies such as Kindred and Betsson trade at about 1.5x Revenue

But the third largest listed gambling company 888 trades at only 0.3x Revenue, and that is even after the recent big rise in the share price.

So if 888 was to trade at a similar valuation to Kindred or Betsson, the 888 share price would need to be about £6

And if 888 was to trade at a similar valuation to Entain, the 888 share price would need to be about £8

And if 888 was to trade at a similar valuation to Flutter, the 888 share price would need to be about £12

So that is why so many of those who know the gambling industry very well are buying big stakes in 888

They know how undervalued it is and that eventually the 888 share price will trade at similar valuations to all of the other listed gambling companies

The most obvious reason why the former GVC/Entain executives Kenny Alexander and Shay Segev have taken a very big stake in 888 is because they can obviously see how hugely undervalued 888 is in revenue terms

That is also the most obvious reason why investors like Parvus Asset Management and HG Vora Capital have recently bought very large stakes in 888

All of the other publicly listed gambling companies trade at a valuation of at least 1.5x Revenue

The largest listed gambling company is Flutter, and it trades at about 3x Revenue

The second largest Entain trades at about 2x Revenue

And other large listed gambling companies such as Kindred and Betsson trade at about 1.5x Revenue

But the third largest listed gambling company 888 trades at only 0.3x Revenue, and that is even after the recent big rise in the share price.

So if 888 was to trade at a similar valuation to Kindred or Betsson, the 888 share price would need to be about £6

And if 888 was to trade at a similar valuation to Entain, the 888 share price would need to be about £8

And if 888 was to trade at a similar valuation to Flutter, the 888 share price would need to be about £12

So that is why so many of those who know the gambling industry very well are buying big stakes in 888

They know how undervalued it is and that eventually the 888 share price will trade at similar valuations to all of the other listed gambling companies

Thanks

I can understand why there is a 25% Withholding Tax on dividends as it is an Irish company

But why is there 1% stamp duty to buy the shares?

The stamp duty for purchases on the Irish stock exchange is 1%

But the company is trading on the LSE

So should the stamp duty not be 0.5% ?

Has anyone bought these shares recently?

Did you have to pay 0.5% stamp duty?

I have bought 888 recently with two brokers and one broker charged 0.5% stamp duty and the other broker did not charge stamp duty

Which one is correct?

888 is not a UK company and so I do not think there should be any stamp duty Has anyone bought these shares recently?

Did you have to pay 0.5% stamp duty?

I have bought 888 recently with two brokers and one broker charged 0.5% stamp duty and the other broker did not charge stamp duty

Which one is correct?

888 is not a UK company and so I do not think there should be any stamp duty

Is there Withholding Tax on dividends here?

And is there no stamp duty on purchases?

Why is stamp duty being charged now on purchases?

888 is an overseas company and so there should be no UK stamp duty.