Commission clears acquisition of Gaming1 Group by CVC

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of certain entities belonging to Gaming1 Group (‘Gaming1’) of Belgium, by CVC Capital Partners SICAV-FIS S.A (‘CVC’) of Luxembourg.

Gaming1 operates land-based casinos, betting halls and online gambling websites in the European Economic Area (‘EEA’), and is active in online licensing of such games to third parties. CVC is a private equity fund providing investment advice to and managing investments on behalf of investment funds. Two portfolio companies of CVC, Tipico and Sisal, operate land-based casinos, betting halls and online gambling websites in the EEA. The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns, given that the parties are not active within the same EEA Member States. In addition, the concentration will not lead to vertical relationships or overlaps between the companies’ activities.

The transaction was examined under the normal merger review procedure. More information is available on the Commission's competition website, in the public case register under the case number M.10634.