Betting giant Ladbrokes today walked away from a second planned takeover in the space of six months, aimed at giving it a foothold in the growing "in-play" betting market.
The firm's chief executive Richard Glynn said the abandoned approach for rival Sportingbet was not a ‘‘failure'' and saved the company from entering a deal which would not have delivered value to its shareholders.
Ladbrokes, the UK's largest betting firm, scrapped talks with Sportingbet just a week before it had to make a firm offer for the business or walk away.
It had emerged earlier in the day that lawyers for Ladbrokes were concerned about the legacy risks attached to its target's Turkish operation, despite Sportingbet being on the brink of selling that arm of its business to another firm.
While Turkey has banned online betting since February 2007, Sportingbet's operations in the country are run from the Channel Islands.
The market for online gambling has also become more turbulent in recent months.
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