(Reuters) -Britain’s antitrust watchdog said on Thursday that Spreadex’s completed acquisition of sports betting rival Sporting Index’s consumer-facing arm raised competition concerns and gave them time for a solution before it deepened its investigation.
Last year, Spreadex bought the ‘business to consumer’ arm of Sporting Index from Sporting Group Holding Ltd. The two companies provide both online fixed odds betting services and online sports spread betting services to UK-based customers.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said its phase 1 probe, which focused on the online sports spread betting market, found the deal may have created a monopoly by removing the only other licensed UK sports spread betting services provider.
The CMA said Spreadex and Sporting Index suggested they would be constrained by fixed odds betting providers after the merger, but had not provided sufficient evidence to support this claim.
The regulator said both parties now have five working days to respond with meaningful solutions before the deal would be subject to an in-depth phase 2 investigation.
Spreadex is also active in financial spread betting and casino betting.
(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)
