Put yourself in Norbert Teufelberger’s shoes. Your company, bwin.party, has been shrinking ever since going public due to loss of grey market opportunities and heightened exposure to government regulation. You’re looking for a new home to help grow what’s left, and two companies approach you. The first is a pair, an odd duo (GVC/Amaya) consisting of a grey market specialist with another who made its fame through leveraged buyouts. The grey marketer wants to take whatever is left of your grey market business, and put all the debt in the hands of its already highly leveraged partner.

Another company approaches you (888), one with no debt whatsoever, who already knows and understands the pain and risk of operating in grey markets and then having to leave them, just like what happened to you. But they have grown out of it despite the tribulations. And you already do business with them, so you know how they operate and you understand the stability of their business plan.

Which do you go with?

Bwin.party is not stupid. Its top management does not want to make the same mistakes it did when Bwin and PartyGaming merged, thinking that grey market opportunities can survive for long when a company becomes too visible to the authorities.