WILLIAM HILL is in talks to buy Stanley Leisure’s 600 betting shops for up to £700 million in a move that would see it leapfrog Ladbrokes to become Britain’s biggest bookmaker.

Discussions have been under way for some time. A Stock Exchange announcement is expected today.

William Hill is likely to face competition from others, including Rank, which in 2002 lost out to Charterhouse Development Capital in a bid for Coral Eurobet. Rank owns Blue Square, the online bookmaker, and Mike Smith its chief executive, has run bookmakers.

Private equity firms have also done well out of bookies’ strong cashflow. There are suggestions that Bob Scott, the former head of Coral, may be interested in leading a buy-in.

The proposed deal may spark regulatory concern since William Hill would end up with about a quarter of the UK’s 8,500 bookmaker sites.

News of the possible betting shops deal comes a month after William Hill said that it had put thoughts of expanding into casinos on the back burner, after deciding that gambling deregulation would not offer the hoped-for benefits.

A sale of its betting division would leave Stanley with its casino arm, which owns some of London’s leading gaming halls and 37 sites in cities including Bristol and Liverpool. A deal would fuel speculation that Stanley may be moving towards a merger with London Clubs International, the casino group. Genting, the Malaysian gaming group, owns stakes in both companies and is expected to drive a merger of the two.

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