Ladbrokes Coral merger postponed by the CMA

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will publish its provisional findings on mid-May instead of mid-April, as expected.

UK.- The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced it has postponed the publishing of its provisional findings on the proposed Ladbrokes Coral merger until mid-May.

The publication was expected in mid-April, whilst the final report is scheduled to be published in late June, being the statutory deadline June 24. By early June, all parties should have introduced their responses and submissions.

Back in July, the merger was agreed and then fast-tracked to a phase 2 investigation in January as per Ladbrokes and Coral’s request. Phase 1 investigation was completed in December.

After the completion of phase 1, the CMA commented that the merger “gives rise to a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition in relation to the supply of fixed-odds betting products in LBOs in a large number of local areas where Ladbrokes and Coral overlap.”

This statement seems to indicate that the position of power Ladbrokes and Coral would achieve together in the UK land-based market represents an obstacle for the merger to be fully completed.

Ladbrokes Coral announcement