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"William Hill has their Prelims on the 1 March, and there is good chance it will be announced on Friday 1 March by them. If not, it will be announced the following week on Monday the 4 March". (I asked for expansion on the 3rd).

Great week ahead for PTEC imo.

must mean Friday then, because the third is Sunday. The team must be working to "end of week dates".

Got this back in minutes. William Hill must be super keen to commit to the third. They have loads more time to decide if they wanted it?!?! "The valuation will be announced by the 3 March, as well as WH’s decision as to whether they will buyout Playtech’s 29% stake in WHO".

I have sent these two questions into the company and will let you know when / if they come back; When will the bank consortium's valuation of the William Hill Online stake be known? -next week (March) or after William Hill's decision is known? How long is the "short period" open to William Hill?

Nubie I'm hoping 2012 full year EPS will take the PE back to 10, or maybe below, at today's SP. PTEC as a fast growing company (in a hot sector too) should be way higher than 10 imo. WMH are on 17!!!! Targets are just an opinion but I'd like 650p short to mid term.

This weekend it's worth pointing out that PTEC pays its divi in €... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/9884905/Can-you-still-profit-from-a-falling-pound.html

"Always average up, never average down". Kudos to you, whilst you were busy averaging up on PTEC I was busy averaging down on BARC! Still, it all came good in the end. Personally, I sit in the FTSE 100 camp in my view for PTEC, and why not? -we have a company with "dot com like" revenue and profit growth, margin rich, market leading, innovative and international in the right market at the right time (mobile gaming & US gaming). If you want in at the FTSE100 then the price today is around £3bn. My 2-3 year view would be a doubling from here to sit somewhere in the bottom quarter percentile of the FTSE100 by market cap. There are variables at PTEC impacting a definitive time frame. Will it get all this cash or ongoing profit? If it gets the cash what will it do with it? Will it buy 888? Will it partner with Ladbrokes? What's the US market going to do? Who will PTEC partner with to develop that market? The company too must have a vision for FTSE100 I'm sure. Lots of exciting stuff.

I also said in my call option post, that I didn't know how long the deal would take to complete if it went ahead. That is answered here: http://announce.ft.com/Detail/?DocKey=1323-11437026-7S1Q7E7FI2LOJKG2GKGIN2NQV6 "if it (WMH) wishes to proceed, must complete the purchase by the end of April 2013".

to my call option post. I was digging through some WMH trading statements and came across this: Playtech call option On 29 November 2012, the Board commenced the contractual valuation process ahead of the potential exercise of its option to acquire the minority stake in William Hill Online. This valuation process will end in February 2013, after which time William Hill has a short period to determine whether it will exercise its option at the value determined by the process. There can be no certainty that the option will be exercised. If not exercised, the Group has a further option right in two years’ time. So the call option is not a one time thing as I had suggested. Rather, WMH can have another crack in 2 years time. Now, do you think WHO will be worth more or less in two years time???!!! I think WMH know the answer to that already.

Could we have NJ sign the bill, and William Hill baulking at a €550m price tag next week? These US states signing off on online gambling is just perfect, perfect timing for PTEC.

At an appearance in Lavallette, the governor said he could conceivably sign the bill the same day the Legislature approved those changes, or the next day, "depending on how my day is going." Both houses are set to consider the bill next week, and lawmakers say they are willing to make the changes Christie asked for when he vetoed it this month. http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2013-02-19/nj-gov-ill-quickly-sign-recast-web-gambling-bill

Online gambling now legal across Nevada. First state to pass the bill, which they did yesterday. New Jersey will sign the bill as soon as next month. Domino from there imo.

£464k buy this morning at 9am. Good on you londonmf for jumping in! ;-)

When WHO was set up, contractual arrangements were put in place that facilitated an option for William Hill to buy PTEC out through the process I will describe below. The buy out is at William Hill's discretion, if they want to buy it at the bank set price, then PTEC are obliged to sell it. It is a legal "call" option. Back in November of last year William Hill made the decision to commence the valuation of PTEC's 29% stake in William Hill Online. There are three banks involved: 1 nominated by William Hill (so trying to influence the price down!), 1 nominated by Playtech (so trying to talk the price up!) and one neutral. These three banks will announce what price they have mutually set at the end of February. WH will then have a short amount of time (few weeks I think) to agree to buy it or not. There will be no negotiation, the price is the price. Playtech must sell at that price if WH want to buy it, they cannot decline. If WH don't like the price, then they don't buy it. Simple. If WH decide not to buy it, the call option expires and Playtech can now keep it (its making a lot of profit already) or sell their stake at any price they like from anyone who might want to buy it. So if WH came knocking again in 2 years time say, Playtech alone would set the price. The banks and the call option are a one time thing only. Bare in mind WH kicked this process off 3-4 months ago, they are serious about buying it whilst they can have at least an influence on the price through their nominated bank. After this process expires, Playtech would call the shots. WH have an option to pay 10% of the bank set price in William Hill shares, the rest would be cash. Personally, I am 90% confident they will execute the call option and buy it. Analysts are forecasting PTEC will take the opportunity to distribute some of the cash back to shareholders in a one time special divi because hey, it's a lot of cash. Whilst the price and WH's decision will be known in the coming weeks, I do not know how long the deal might take to close. all imo. Good luck!

WHO buyout price is expected end Feb.

Firstly it can only be your call as to when to buy in. One effective strategy you might employ to deal with any pull back is to drip your buys over a period of time (might be days or weeks). That way you come out with a price average. With PTEC you must consider that there are two market price drivers imminent. First is the price that William Hill Online are going to be asked to pay for PTEC's 29% stake in order to buy PTEC out. Given the massive profit generator that is WHO, and the news out of New Jersey (as you have mentioned) this price is likely to be high. As you may know the price will be dictated by a consortium of three banks. PTEC are expecting top dollar at €500m, but that was before NJ.... Second is full year results which will be released March 16th. We know from the interim statement that the "record breaking year" continues. So these results are, as we saw last week, likely to be stellar. So with these in mind I would suggest the only thing that can pull PTEC back would be a general market (FTSE) correction. That might happen within the next month, it might not. And even if it does, PTEC is progressing with compelling news in any case. Whatever strategy should you decide to build a stake I wish you every success with your investment.

Just a huge, huge market. http://www.onlinecasinoarchives.com/entertainment/2013/02/14/playtech-launches-bingo-app-sky-bet/

"...accelerating gains towards the top of a rising trend channel in place since the beginning of last year heading towards £6.50. What can also be said even at this stage is that such a target could be hit as soon as the end of next month, especially if as it would appear, we are looking at a major rerating opportunity for this mini sector of the stock market as the US gaming zone comes on tap as a potential revenue stream". http://tradingresearchpoint.co.uk/2013/02/09/playtech-ptec-potential-for-650p/

The story at PTEC is about to get into gear. Record breaking revenue, stupidly margin rich, cash galore, no risk of debt or placings or dilution, and in the context of the US market opening up and perhaps half a billion quid to reinvest from the WHO buyout. A double from here puts Playtech at £2.8bn with 290m shares in issue, 65% of which are tightly held (49% by Mr. Sagi alone) and maybe into the FTSE 100 by the skin of its teeth. More upgrades from brokers imo once FY results are released mid March, and by then we'll know the call option price from WHO. If the 2013 secular bull market comes to pass (strongest Jan for 25 years) this really could be Playtech's defining year.