UK bookmaker William Hill’s takeover by US casino operator Caesars Entertainment has been approved by the former company’s shareholders, setting up a fresh fight over Hills’ non-US business.

On Thursday, Hills announced that shareholders who control 86.6% of the betting company had voted – on a virtual basis due to COVID-19 – to accept Caesars’s £2.9b offer for the UK bookmaker, easily exceeding the required 75% threshold for the deal to go forward.

Hills also announced that Caesars now expects the deal to conclude by the end of Q2 2021, with a possible conclusion by the end of March, barring any late hurdles thrown up by regulators in the markets in which the two companies operate. Caesars previously projected that the deal would close in the second half of next year.

Caesars has made no secret that its interest in Hills is entirely focused on the company’s US-facing division, leaving the future of Hills’ non-US operations very much an open question. Last week, GVC Holdings CEO Shay Segev told Bloomberg that his company might consider a bid for Hills’ UK and European assets.