Playtech agrees to acquire trading group Plus500 for £460m

Online gambling tech provider Playtech has agreed to acquire London-listed financial trading and spread betting operator Plus500 for approximately £460m.

The deal builds on Playtech’s recent acquisition of a 91% stake in TradeFX, the online contracts-for-difference (CFD) and binary options trading platform provider earlier this year.

Playtech will acquire the entire issued ordinary share capital of the Israel-based Plus500 for 400p per share through Playtech subsidiary Brighttech Investments.

The price tag values the troubled Plus500 significantly below what it was worth prior to its recent difficulties, which have seen the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) scrutinize the systems it has in place to prevent money laundering.