(Reuters) -Britain’s antitrust watchdog has accepted Spreadex’s proposal to sell Sporting Index’s consumer-facing unit, it said on Friday, after the companies gave into the regulator’s demands to allay competition concerns.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last month said that Spreadex’s acquisition of Sporting Index’s business-to-consumer arm created a monopoly in the UK licensed online sports spread betting market, and could require the unit be sold.
“The CMA has reached agreement with Spreadex, Spreadex.Com Limited and Sporting Index as to the terms of final undertakings,” it said in documents released on Friday.
The regulator has in the past also sought divestitures as a measure to address what it calls “significant lessening of competition.” In 2022, JD Sports sold Footasylum after the CMA had raised concerns.
Spreadex and Sporting Index offer online fixed-odds betting services and online sports spread-betting services to UK-based customers, and Spreadex had bought the B2C arm in 2023.
Sports spread betting differs from fixed-odds betting by enabling customers to bet on multiple potential outcomes of sporting events, rather than solely betting on whether a team wins or loses.
However, the CMA’s acceptance of the proposals, may not as yet draw a line under the long-running probe.
“Spreadex strongly disagrees with this entirely disproportionate decision and are reviewing all available options,” a spokesperson for the company said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
In March, the CMA had reopened its investigation into the Sporting Index deal, after Spreadex won an appeal to reverse the CMA’s order in November 2024 for the company to sell the business.
(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka and Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
