The Betmakers Technology Group Ltd (ASX: BET) share price has had a good start to the trading day today.
Betmakers shares hit a new 52-week high this morning, and at the time of writing are up 3.72% to $1.54 a share.
This latest share price move puts Betmakers up 22% over the past month, 119% year to date, 156% over the past 6 months, and 338% over the past year.
It also means the Betmakers share price is up 812% in 5 years, and more than 5,000% since its all-time low of 3 cents back in 2019.
What's behind the company's new high?
Well, it appears to be the result of some good old-fashioned rumours circulating around the ASX boards today.
These rumours involve fellow gaming company Tabcorp Holdings Limited (ASX: TAH).
As my Fool colleague Brendon Lau reported this morning, there is speculation that Betmakers may be close to making a merger proposal with Tabcorp.
Tabcorp is a gaming company worth about $11.32 billion. In contrast, Betmakers currently has a market capitalisation of $1.26 billion.
As my Fool colleague divulged this morning, speculation surrounds Matthew Tripp of Betmakers working with investment bank Goldman Sachs to engineer a potential merger.
According to a report in The Australian, this merger could potentially unlock as much as $5 billion in value for shareholders.
They will have to fight for it though. Tabcorp is no stranger to merger proposals. Apollo Global Management and Entain (owner of Ladbrokes) have reportedly approached Tabcorp for a deal as well.
We might have to wait for an update on 30 June from Tabcorp to see how this will play out.
About the Tabcorp share price
In contrast to Betmakers, the Tabcorp share price has not been an overly lucrative performer in recent years.
Although Tabcorp shares are up 1.5% today to $5.08 a share, the company is still a long way from the $8 a share levels investors saw way back in mid-2007.
Indeed, you could have picked up Tabcorp shares for the same price as they are going for today back in 2015. In other words, this company has been stuck in the mud, share-price wise, for a while now.
