The main Australian competition regulator has informally approved the long-time planned merger of Canadian The Stars Group Incorporated and Irish sports betting operator Flutter Entertainment. According to one report released by The Irish Times news outlet, this important authorization by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is a mandatory step before the two entities can merge officially.

As soon as this happens, the two will create the world’s largest sports betting entity with a massive player base of over ten million customers. Also reported by The Irish Times newspaper, the two entities hope to have completed the planned merger sometime in the following months by the end of September. However, for this to happen, the entire arrangement must be approved by the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board as well as a number of other regulatory bodies including the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.

History of Flutter Entertainment

Formerly Paddy Power Betfair plc, Flutter Entertainment is a prominent bookmaking company that was created by the merger of Betfair and Paddy Power. The company operates under several different brands including FanDuel, TVG, Sportsbet, Paddy Power, and Betfair. It was founded relatively recently back in 2016 when Betfair and its probably biggest rival Paddy Power agreed with all terms for a merger.

Today, the merged business is owned 48% by former shareholders of Betfair and 52% by former shareholders of Paddy Power. Since the merger was completed back in February of 2016, the company started implementing a fully electronic self-exclusion policy through its app. This new system replaced the current process in the United Kingdom. Then in May of 2018, the Paddy Power Betfair company announced that it will be acquiring FanDuel which is one of the biggest sports betting operators in the USA.

As part of this acquisition deal, the company invested 158 million to merge its existing business operations in the USA into its newly-formed FanDuel Group. Speaking of the company’s business acquisitions, it also acquired 51% controlling stakes in a Georgian adjarabet which emerged on the scene in 1998.

Then in March last year, the Paddy Power Betfair company announced that it is rebranding as Flutter Entertainment. The new business form operates separate brands in Italy, Ireland, and the United Kingdom while it operates across different divisions including the United States, Australia, retail and online.

The Stars Group Entertainment’s Business Objectives

Formerly known as Amaya Gaming Group and Rational Group, The Stars Group is a prominent Canadian online gaming company that is currently listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. The company was founded in 2001 in Toronto, Canada and today it offers online gaming services and products including sportsbook, casino, and poker through several online divisions.

The company operates several online brands including Full Tilt Poker, BetStars, PokerStars Casino and PokerStars. The firm is also the owner of the MegaStack, PokerStars Festival and PokerStars Championship poker tournaments. With the two companies merging together, the world’s biggest sports betting brand would be formed.

Flutter Entertainment will be handing over its shares worth around $6.95 billion while the company plans to acquire a 54.64% stake of The Stars Group before it proceeds with merging operations with the other entity. For its part, The Stars Group Incorporated is looking forward to new business deals and successful acquisitions which will allow the company’s expansion across other markets.

As reported recently, the owners of PokerStars and Paddy Power Betfair have agreed to merge the businesses with a brand-new business deal which will see the establishment of the biggest online gambling and betting company by gross gaming revenues in the world. What is even more, this merged company also plans on taking advantage of the rapidly-growing United States-based iGaming markets.

Paddy Power is definitely one of the most popular, leading bookmakers which emerged on the scene in 1988 in the capital city of Ireland, Dublin. The firm conducts its business through a large chain of gambling shops located in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company also operates the largest Ireland-based telephone gambling service while on the Internet, Paddy Power offers online poker, sports betting, online casino, and online bingo games.

Two iGaming Behemoths Merging

Paddy Power merged with another premier betting company Betfair back in February of 2016 to create what we know today as Flutter Entertainment or Paddy Power Betfair. When it comes to the Poker Stars brand, it is definitely among the leading online poker rooms in the industry owned and operated by The Stars Group. The brand was founded almost twenty years ago on the 11^th of September 2001.

Back in 2003, one of the Poker Stars online satellite poker tournaments produced the 2003 WSOP champion. This was Chris Moneymaker who became the very first person to become a WSOP champion by qualifying at an online poker room. Chris Moneymaker’s win from 2003 was among the most important factors which later on led to the massive poker boom and consequently to Poker Stars becoming the world’s biggest online poker site which today controls significantly over two-thirds of the entire online poker gaming world.

According to the business deal’s agreement, Paddy Power Betfair also known as Flutter Entertainment, will merge with The Stars Group which owns and operates Poker Stars. As revealed, Flutter Entertainment’s shareholders will own slightly over 54.64% of the new entity while shareholders of the other company will have a smaller percentage of around 45.3.

Huge Customer Base

As things stand now, the newly formed group will have more than 13 million active customers with a presence in over 100 markets around the globe. This will give them a huge advantage in the competitive iGaming industry and create new opportunities to further boost their already hugely successful individual businesses.

It will be particularly interesting to see what the new group’s plans might be for the booming US market. With the sports betting becoming legal in the States, two gaming giants will certainly look to make their presence known in the US as well.

The Stars Group already has a significant footprint in the United States and combining forces with Paddy Power Betfair will make it possible for them to tackle even more areas of the market, especially when it comes to sports betting, something for which Paddy Power is famous for. Both companies agree that the opening of the US betting market is one of the most exciting events in the history of the iGaming industry and it’s an opportunity they’ll certainly be looking to seize as much as possible.