Australian Hotels Association supports Tabcorp-Tatts merger

The Australian Hotels Association (AHA) has declared its support for the Tabcorp-Tatts merger, suggesting there is “no loss of competition”.

The AHA made a submission to the Australian Competition Tribunal supporting the $11 billion deal between the two registered gambling giants.

While many, including the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman Rob Sims, have expressed their concern over the weakened competition, AHA has suggested otherwise.

Interestingly, the submission has come following the announcement Tabcorp signed a five-year wagering deal with AHA NSW.

In the brief submission, AHA says “Tabcorp and Tatts do not compete in the supply of wagering in retail venues because they are each exclusively licensed to operate in different states and territories.”

When it comes to bidding rights, many gambling operators have expressed that reducing the number of bidders will reduce competition, for example in the retail market for pari-mutuel betting.

AHA says in its submission that “there are a number of potential bidders, including significant corporate bookmakers and broadcasters.”

“While hotels and other venues are not directly involved in any such bidding processes, we see “first hand” every day in our hotels the extremely rapid pace of change that is occurring in wagering, and particularly in retail wagering,” the submission says.

The main issue of concern brought up by the ACCC – before Tabcorp bypassed the regulatory process and proceeded straight to the Tribunal – is broadcasting rights.

“AHA supports a single provider of racing vision into retail venues,” the AHA submission says.

“Our experience in the past with ‘split vision’ is that it reduces wagering revenue for hotels. In any event, we are not aware of Tatts having ever raised the prospect of participating in the media market.”

“Tabcorp (and Sky Racing) will continue to have to compete for the acquisition of rights from racing clubs and the emergence of Racing.com demonstrates that other players can and do obtain these rights, from time to time.”

Racing.com is against the merger and takes issue with the scope of power the Sky Racing broadcast business will have via the Tatts merger. The company was created over a battle in vision rights and is now owned by Racing Victoria and Seven West Media.

Support by the AHA was expected though, given its submission was submitted around the same time Tabcorp announced it would be teaming up with the 1116 hotels and pubs around NSW.

The deal is reportedly meant to trump CrownBet’s deal with ClubsNSW which will see new cash machines rolled out where punters with an account can withdraw their funds instantly instead of waiting for them to be transferred to a personal bank account.