By Zoe Samios
A major PointsBet shareholder says it will reject a $353 million takeover offer by a Japanese entertainment giant, arguing an alternative proposal by a local rival, Matt Tripp’s BlueBet, is more compelling.
BlueBet, which last year merged with Betr and is now chaired by the wagering industry stalwart, said it had offered to acquire PointsBet in a cash and share deal but was rebuffed. The company made the disclosure shortly after PointsBet said it had agreed to sell itself to Mixi, which has a small bookmaking subsidiary in Australia known as betM.
The scramble for PointsBet is the latest iteration of a years-long consolidation of the Australian bookmaking industry, which faces more restrictive regulations, weaker economic conditions, and intense competition from international giants like Sportsbet.
Mixi’s bid, which has been unanimously backed by the PointsBet board, offers shareholders $1.06 per share in cash, a 27.7 per cent premium on the stock’s closing price the day before the proposal was disclosed.
BlueBet’s proposal, first made on February 18 and formalised this week, is for a cash pool of between $240 million and $260 million – at $1.14 per share – and scrip valued at between $100 million and $120 million. BlueBet said it had identified $40 million in synergies and had secured funding for its bid.
Sources close to PointsBet, who requested anonymity to speak freely, said the initial BlueBet proposal was assessed thoroughly and rejected because it was highly conditional and did not include funding certainty.
Two PointsBet investors, Wilson Asset Management and Pendal, are both supporting BlueBet’s proposal over Mixi’s takeover bid.
“The key attraction of the BlueBet proposal is the option to roll script into the merged entity as we believe there is significant future upside,” said Wilson Asset Management’s Shaun Weick. “Bowing out and accepting Mixi’s bid would leave a lot of upside on the table. We think the Mixi bid is truly undervaluing the business. We will vote against the Mixi deal.”
Pendal’s Damien Diamant said BlueBet’s offer was the “superior bid”. “Scale is important and the market will attribute more value to a larger business in addition to cost synergies,” he added on Wednesday.
WAM and Pendal both have shares in BlueBet.
But PointsBet chief executive Sam Swanell said Mixi’s proposal was compelling. “The price appropriately reflects the value of PointsBet’s world-class technology assets and reputation for wagering excellence in both Australia and Canada,” he said.
PointsBet launched in Melbourne in 2017 and has an online market share of about 5 per cent. It previously discussed a tie-up with Tripp when he ran Betr, which merged with BlueBet in early 2024.
PointsBet’s shareholders include international Sports International Group, American gaming company Penn Interactive, NBC Universal, cryptocurrency gambling magnate Edward Craven – the youngest billionaire in Australia – and his Stake.com co-founder, Bijan Tehrani.
Alongside the takeover offer, PointsBet reported revenues of $124.4 million for the six months to December 31, up 6 per cent, and a loss of $17.2 million.
PointsBet shares jumped 32 per cent to $1.10.
