Hot Zone

What is Hot Zone?

Merkur has agreed to pay an effective price of €6.19 per SFC share for the stake, representing a substantial premium over recent market valuations. 

The premium reflects both the control premium paid to the sellers and Merkur’s valuation for majority ownership.

As Merkur’s acquisition of Casigrangi would grant indirect control over SFC, French regulations require Merkur to launch a simplified mandatory tender offer for the remaining SFC shares it does not already hold. 

How to play Hot Zone

In March, William Hill told staff it plans to permanently close approximately 200 of its retail shops in the UK, around 15% of Evoke’s retail estate.

Last month, meanwhile, Betfred announced plans to shutter 132 of its UK betting shops, reducing its workforce by over 600 employees.

Betfred CEO Jo Whittaker said: “We have tried hard to protect all our sites and the colleagues who work in them, but the combined impact of higher employer National Insurance contributions, wage inflation, increases in gambling taxes and wider economic uncertainty has left us with no choice.”

How to play Hot Zone

Yahoo Finance has soured on prediction market Polymarket, closing a deal between the financial news platform and the event contract operator in less than a year after it began. 

The two companies began collaborating in November 2025. As part of the deal, Polymarket provided data for a dedicated prediction market section on Yahoo Finance. The feature provided market-based probabilities of economic, political, and financial developments alongside Yahoo Finance content. 

The Yahoo Finance prediction market section was taken out in April. The companies have now confirmed that the larger deal is also off, as reported by Bloomberg.