A Wall Street buyout firm is preparing for battle with the Israeli gambling tycoons behind 888 Holdings as 1,400 William Hill betting shops go under the hammer.

Apollo Global Management will take on the Shaked family, 888 Holdings’ founding shareholders, as an auction for the bookmaker’s UK and European businesses gets under way.

Caesars Entertainment will kick off the sale of the bookmaker’s non-US assets in the coming weeks, The Telegraph has learnt. The Las Vegas casino giant completed a deal to buy one of the oldest names in British gambling outright for £2.9bn last month but has signalled it is only interested in retaining the fast-growing American business.