LONDON Ukbetting, an online gambling and sports-information company that does not accept bets from the United States, said Thursday that it had received approaches about a possible takeover. Its shares climbed 11 percent.
Stock in Ukbetting rose 6 pence to 61.5 pence in London. The shares had fallen 5.5 percent Monday, when stocks like PartyGaming and Sportingbet plummeted after the U.S. Congress passed legislation to shut down Web gambling in the United States.
The approaches to Ukbetting are "preliminary" and may not result in an offer, the company, based in Leeds, England, said Thursday in a statement.
"There can be no certainty that any formal approach to the company and, consequently, any offer will be forthcoming," Ukbetting said in the statement.
Ukbetting, like the British bookmakers William Hill, Ladbrokes and Paddy Power, benefited from record levels of wagers placed on the soccer World Cup in June and July.
Ukbetting operates the Internet bookmaker totalbet.com and oddschecker.com, which allows gamblers to compare odds at competing gaming sites.
About 9.3 million people a month visit Ukbetting's Web sites, which also include cricket365.com and planetrugby.com.
PartyGaming shares slid 58 percent Monday. The Web gambling company, which trades in London but is based in Gibraltar, got more than four-fifths of its sales from the United States last year.
"A week ago it was a fantastic long- term growth business, and now people are saying you need to consolidate to survive," Andy Brough, director at Schroder Investment Management in London, said of online gambling stocks before Ukbetting's announcement.
Fidelity sells gaming shares
Fidelity International, the affiliate in London of the world's largest mutual fund manager, has sold shares in World Gaming, the online bookmaker said.
World Gaming, which runs gambling Web sites and licenses betting software, said in a Regulatory News Service statement that it was told Thursday that Fidelity "no longer has a notifiable interest in the company."
As of April, Fidelity and its affiliates held about 1.3 million shares, or 3 percent, of the company's equity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.
Shares of World Gaming, a company based in Antigua that is one of more than 20 Internet gambling-related companies that trade on London's Alternative Investment Market, have plunged 84 percent so far this week.
