CrownBet against Tabcorp-Tatts merger

CrownBet is reportedly against the merger between the companies as it believes it would kill competition.

Australia.- CrownBet has appealed the attempt from Tabcorp and Tatts to merge their businesses, as it claims that is not beneficial for the Australian market. The new appeal follows the one from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, issued earlier this week.

The ACCC decided to file the first appeal against the Australian Competition Tribunal’s decision to allow Tabcorp and Tatts to merge, because they believe three reviewable errors have been made. One of the errors, according to the ACCC, is that the ACT doesn’t consider that the merger would weaken the competition. “The Tribunal’s failure to compare the likely future state of competition both with and without the proposed acquisition in its consideration of whether the proposed acquisition was likely to result in any detriment,” said the commission, when speaking about the second mistake made by the ACT. Moreover, they believe that the Tribunal failed to assess the benefits that the merger could offer, as they think that the advantages of the deal were wrongly judged by the Tribunal as well.

A spokesperson for CrownBet said the company feels like the proposed merger is bad for punters and competition. “We have taken this step to ensure the detriments arising from the merger are properly considered.” Whilst Tabcorp had already announced the opposition to ACCC’s application, the company released a statement yesterday that said that it will also file the opposition to CrownBet’s appeal and will pursue an expedited hearing of the matter.