Australian sportsbook CrownBet has agreed not to apply for a judicial review of the Australian Competition Tribunal’s latest decision to grant authorization to the proposed AU$11 billion merger between Tabcorp Holdings and Tatts Group as part of an agreement with Tabcorp.
In an announcement on Thursday, Tabcorp said it had reached a settlement with CrownBet that will see the Crown Resorts subsidiary drop its opposition to the merger and cease proceedings in the Supreme Court of NSW in relation to the legal status of their proposed arrangements with clubs in New South Wales.
In return, Tabcorp will supply CrownBet with a digital stream of its SKY1 and SKY2 racing channels for the personal use of its Australian customers on their own mobile and computer devices.
Under the terms of the agreement, which is subject to the Tabcorp-Tatts merger going ahead, CrownBet will make payments to Tabcorp of an annual minimum amount.
The deal represents one more significant step forward for the merger, which was approved by the Tribunal for the second time on 22 November. Its original approval earlier in the year was subsequently set aside by the Federal Court in September amid concerns raised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that the tribunal erred by failing to take into account all possible instances of competition being lessened by the merger and by failing to compare the likely future state of competition both with and without the proposed merger in its consideration of whether it was likely to result in any detriment.
