UK's Playtech receives takeover offer from Gopher

Britain's Playtech received a takeover bid from its second-biggest shareholder, Gopher Investments, the online gambling software developer said on Sunday.

The development comes weeks after Australian gambling machine maker Aristocrat Leisure made a £2.1 billion (US$2.83 billion) offer to buy Playtech.

Playtech received a preliminary approach from Gopher on Oct 21 seeking access to certain due diligence information, in order to explore terms on which a possible offer for all of the issued and to be issued share capital of Playtech might be made, according to the statement.

Hong Kong-based Gopher is weighing plans for a £3 billion takeover of the company and is being advised by Rothschild, according to Sky News which first reported the development.

The London-listed company said discussions with Gopher were at an early stage and ongoing

Gopher did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for a comment.

"As such, there can be no certainty that Gopher's approach will result in an offer for the company, nor as to the terms on which any offer might be made," Playtech added.