CMA approved GVC and Ladbrokes Coral merger

The authority has given its approval to GVC Holdings and Ladbrokes Coral Group, which are seeking to merge their businesses.

UK.- The Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) from the United Kingdom has announced on Wednesday that it has given its approval to GVC Holdings and Ladbrokes Coral Group to merge their business.

After an investigation to make sure the merger followed the requirements, the CMA said that the deal doesn’t give rise to competition concerns and has approved the acquisition agreement. “GVC has a small presence in the UK and only offers services online. The CMA has found that GVC and Ladbrokes are not close rivals and there are many other providers of betting and gaming services online.”

“The CMA looked closely at betting services for individual sports and individual games but found that, in all cases, there will be enough rivals to the merged entity to prevent price increases or a reduced quality of service as a result of the merger. The merger will therefore not be referred for an in-depth investigation,” said CMA.

The deal was announced in December 2017, when GVC agreed to acquire the group in a £4bn deal. It is expected that the deal would take place on March 28th – depending on whether the Court approves the acquisition – while joint shares would begin trading on March 29th.

“The enlarged group would be an online-led globally positioned betting and gaming business that would benefit from a multi-brand, multi-channel strategy applied across some of the strongest brands in the sector,” both companies said in a statement released in November.