The proposed £5.8 billion merger of Paddy Power and Betfair came closer to completion after the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had “cleared the anticipated merger of Betfair Group plc and Paddy Power plc.”

An inquiry by the CMA began on November 9, 2015 and took nine days to complete. The decision to approve the merger means the deal will not be subject to a second investigation that would take up to 90 working days to complete.

While the CMA has given its blessing of the deal, the planned merger needs to be approved by The Republic’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission before the merger is complete. Its investigation in underway, but it is yet to reach a conclusion.

If, as anticipated, the merger of Paddy Power and Betfair is given the nod, the newly formed company would become one of the world’s biggest gambling businesses, one with an estimate stock market value of some £5.8 billion.

The CMA’s decision gave both Paddy Power and Betfair’s share price a boost, with shares in Paddy Power increasing 1.58% to €122.25, and Betfair’s improving by 1.49% to 3,825 pence when the stock markets closed for business on Thursday, December 17.

Although they are still waiting to see if the merger goes through, shareholders in Betfair and Paddy Power are set to vote on the merger on Monday, December 21. Both sets of shareholders are expected to approve the deal by a huge majority.

An extraordinary general meeting took place at GVC Holdings and bwin.party last week, which saw shareholders in both companies vote in favor of the £1.116 billion reverse takeover of bwin.party by GVC.

When the votes were counted, 99.1% of GVC shareholders voted for the takeover, with 99.9% of bwin.party investors approving the deal. These figures give the green light for the takeover to be officially completed, with a date of February 1, 2016 being pencilled in.

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