(Reuters) -Britain’s competition watchdog on Thursday renewed its concerns about Spreadex’s 2023 acquisition of Sporting Index’s consumer arm, saying the two companies together have a monopoly over the UK’s licensed online sports spread-betting market.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) reopened its investigation into the deal in March after its order last November requiring Spreadex to sell the business it acquired from Sporting Group in 2023 was overturned by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) following an appeal by Spreadex.
The CMA, which acknowledged errors in its initial findings due to misinterpretations of third-party evidence, has now provisionally concluded in its latest investigation that Spreadex and Sporting Index do not face any meaningful competition from other types of betting providers.
Spreadex had argued that Sporting Index would have exited the market without the deal, but the CMA believes it could have been sold to another buyer and remained a competitor.
Spreadex declined to comment on the regulator’s latest findings.
The company has until June 19 to respond with possible remedies, the CMA said.
(Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Susan Fenton)
