LONDON, Oct 26 (Reuters Breakingviews) - DraftKings (DKNG.O) on Tuesday ended talks with UK bookie Entain (ENT.L) over a possible $23 billion cash-and-stock deal. That was hardly a surprise. They faced the twin difficulties of agreeing a price while also winning over MGM Resorts International (MGM.N), Entain’s U.S. joint-venture partner, who could have made life tricky for any merged entity. But M&A may not be completely off the table. The 50-50 venture, called BetMGM, looks untenable since MGM Chief Executive Bill Hornbuckle wants to control his own destiny in U.S. sports gambling. He tried to secure ownership earlier this year with an $11 billion bid for all of Entain, which the British group rejected read more . Hornbuckle is unlikely to try again, since Entain is now worth $16 billion compared with his own group’s $23 billion. One alternative is to bid for Entain’s half of the venture, or maybe just enough to get a majority of board seats. In any case, the Entain M&A saga has legs. (By Liam Proud)On Twitter http://twitter.com/breakingviews Capital Calls - More concise insights on global finance:Petrofac adds new data point to market exuberance read more Scarcity value pushes Covea to revive an old deal read more Tesla rents a runaway $1 trillion valuation read more Volvo Cars IPO is priced to go read more Zooplus endgame may not be total dog’s breakfast read more