Deadline For Tabcorp and Tatts Merger Extended

The Australian Competition Tribunal has agreed to extend the deadline on whether a merger between Tabcorp and the Tatts Group is to be approved. There had been a plan to try and get a decision on the merger to be made before June ends.

The announcement over this move will be made in September. This comes as about A$6.4 billion is involved in the proposal to get the two rivals to join up together.

The ACT still has the right to make a final decision before September 10, the official deadline for the move. However, the ACT is still expected to use this opportunity to have additional time to figure out what may come about.

Background of the Deal

Tabcorp reached an agreement with Tatts to acquire that group in October 2016. The agreement was made in principle as a means of getting Tabcorp to compete in today’s online gaming market. This especially comes as many other groups have bene getting a number of licenses to operate in Australia (Australian online casinos on this page) and many other parts of the world.

Some Australian operators have expressed concerns over the move. This comes as Tabcorp might end up being a little too large in comparison with everyone else.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission have also expressed some worries about how the move would be received and how it would operate. The ACCC argues that the amount of power that Tabcorp would have in the market would be far too dramatic and could hurt the industry in general.

Tabcorp has not taken the opposition of the ACCC lightly. The company chose to get out of the approval process run by the ACCC in March and decided to stick with a separate process run by the Australian Competition Tribunal which is the focus of the most recent development in the story.

Racing Issues

A major concern surrounding the proposed move entails how Tabcorp’s racing broadcast wing might be impacted. Sky Racing has been a popular name for how it broadcasts a variety of races that are available for betting purposes.

People who are opposed to the merger argue that the market power of the company would make it extremely difficult for people to be able to highlight themselves or stand out in some way.

Even so, Tabcorp and Tatts are both hopeful that the agreement will be finalized before the year ends. This is all with the hopes of being more competitive. The two sides even argue that the merger is the key that could help small market entities to be competitive with many others from all corners of the world that might be a little larger in size than others.

The ongoing progress for trying to get the merger to work and move forward is expected to be extensive and will work with many other authorities to help with regulating the move and making it final. There is still a potential for Tabcorp and Tatts to officially merge before the year’s end but the ACT will still have to approve of the merger.