PointsBet appears to be leaning towards the acquisition offer made by Australian betting challenger brand Betr over that made by Japanese digital entertainment group MIXI.

Melbourne-headquartered PointsBet, which is active in Australia and Canada and formerly active in the US, states that Betr’s offer may lead to a ‘superior proposal’ to MAXI’s offer.

The firm is now committed to carrying out further due diligence as to how an acquisition and integration into Betr’s operation will benefit PointsBet’s business and its ASX shareholders.

“PointsBet therefore proposes that a form of mutual due diligence be undertaken by PointsBet and Betr,” the firm’s statement asserted.

Due diligence will focus on the value of synergies between the two companies, as well as on Betr’s scrip, the firm’s substitute for legal tender in parts of its offer. This is because Betr’s offer consists of 57% cash, with the remaining 43% consisting of scrip.

However, while PointsBet now clearly sees the value in Betr’s offer, the firm’s board also wants to see progress made on the arrangement with MIXI. While PointsBet believes that Betr’s offer could become a superior proposal to MIXI’s, it remains adamant that Betr’s bid is definitive.

The firm’s board states that it “remains committed to, and unanimously recommends, that PointsBet shareholders vote in favour of the MIXI Scheme, in the absence of a Super Proposal”. The Board added that this is ‘in the best interests of PointsBet shareholders’.

MIXI Australia and Betr, the trading name of BlueBet, started a bidding war for PointsBet back in February. Betr put in an offer of between AU$ 340 m-AU$360 m (£24.7m-£26.9m) while MIXI offered AU$ 353 m.

Betr would then make its cemented AU$360m offer in March, stating that this was ‘superior in value’ to MIXI’s despite PointsBet having already approved MIXI’s offer and encouraging its shareholders to vote in favour of the deal.

This week’s development will obviously come as welcome news to Betr, which can now act in confidence knowing that its bid for one of Australia’s biggest challenger betting brands is not dead in the water.

Betr was launched in 2022 as a joint venture between Australia-based international media group News Corp, Australian betting businessman Matthew Tripp’s TGW, and Las Vegas firm Tekkorp.

BlueBet, meanwhile, was founded in 2015 with a mission to disrupt Australia’s highly competitive betting landscape. The firm took this mission to a new level in 2024 when it merged with Betr, which it now trades as, and in April completed its takeover of Northern Territory-based TopSport.

The firm now estimates that it has a market share of between 10%-20% in Australia. Acquiring PointsBet would significantly expand this further, enabling it to further challenge the country’s heritage brands like Tabcorp, Entain’s Ladbrokes AUS and NEDS, and Flutter Entertainment‘s Sportsbet.

Acquiring PointsBet would also expand BlueBet’s international reach due to the former’s activity in Ontario, Canada. However, it remains to be seen whether dealmakers will solely focus on the M&A of Australian activities.

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