BlueBet completes acquisition of TopSport

The company has made a cash payment of AU$1.52m (US$949,400).

Australia.- BlueBet Holdings has announced that it has completed the acquisition of certain assets of Merlehan Bookmaking Pty, trading as TopSport, following the migration of TopSport customers to its platform.

BlueBet has made a cash payment of AU$1.52m (US$949,400) as final payment, minus customer account balances, unsettled bets, and employee entitlements. The payment was funded using the proceeds of the company’s capital raise completed on February 13. The company has also issued 8,823,529 fully paid ordinary shares to TopSport.

BlueBet said more than 63 million rows of TopSport customer data were securely migrated overnight, including transactional data, pending bets and account balances. Tristan Merlehan, former chief executive officer of TopSport, will take on the role of chief trading officer at BlueBet.

Andrew Menz, CEO of BlueBet, said: “We have successfully completed the acquisition of TopSport, executing an innovative transaction structure that enabled us to migrate TopSport customers onto the betr platform prior to completion. This materially de-risked the transaction and ensured that all anticipated cost synergies were fully realised within just 55 days of announcing the deal, without the need to operate the TopSport brand or wagering platform during the transition.

“This outcome reflects our repeatable and scalable M&A model, underpinned by the speed and precision of our migration team. Our ability to rapidly execute on the integration and migration with no disruption to our offering remains a key competitive advantage, delivering immediate value for our shareholders.

“With the successful integration of TopSport, our focus now shifts to further inorganic growth opportunities in the Australian market, including our compelling and fully funded proposal to acquire PointsBet. By providing the flexibility for PointsBet shareholders to choose a mix of cash and scrip, we believe ours is a superior proposal for shareholders to realise value in the short and long term. Our engagement with PointsBet shareholders remains overwhelmingly positive and we look forward to progressing our discussions with the PointsBet Board.”

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