Six months ago, Tabcorp and BetMakers talked about a takeover and walked away with nothing. The second attempt produced a signed agreement: Tabcorp will acquire BetMakers Technology Group at an enterprise value of about A$267 million, folding a supplier whose software runs sportsbooks, racing data products, and tote systems around the world into one of Australia’s largest wagering companies. Nothing is final yet, since the scheme still needs shareholders, a court, the competition regulator, and gambling authorities to all say yes.
The terms value BetMakers at roughly A$283 million on a fully diluted equity basis, with Tabcorp paying A$0.24 per share, a 41% premium to the one-month volume-weighted average price before the announcement. Shareholders who prefer stock over cash can take part of the payment in Tabcorp shares, capped at 25% of the total consideration, and at most 70.7 million new Tabcorp shares would be issued if everyone elected the maximum. The cash portion comes from existing reserves and undrawn debt, leaving pro forma leverage at an estimated 1.9 times net debt to EBITDA against Tabcorp’s own ceiling of 2.5.
So what is Tabcorp actually buying? Mostly a shortcut. TAB remains one of the country’s biggest betting operations, but its technology stack has been under reconstruction throughout Gillon McLachlan’s tenure as CEO, and BetMakers arrives with the pieces already assembled: a cloud-based wagering platform, racing data, trading tools, tote technology, and a book of B2B customers. Building the equivalent internally would have taken years that Tabcorp evidently doesn’t want to spend.
BetMakers itself is a stranger business than the average Australian wagering target. It produced A$14 million in EBITDA over the 12 months ending June 2026, going by the unaudited figures in Tabcorp’s own acquisition presentation, and 73% of its FY2025 revenue came from outside Australia, with 97% of it contracted. The operation splits into Global Betting Services and Global Tote, covering everything from fixed-odds data and betting platforms to pool management and self-service terminals.
That foreign-heavy revenue is precisely the point. Tabcorp already runs a wholesale side, selling racing media and tote services to other businesses, including some that compete with TAB at home, and it wants that side to grow beyond the limits of the Australian customer. BetMakers extends the reach, particularly in international racing markets where its Quantum tote engine and Race Day Control operations are already embedded.
Then there’s the spreadsheet half of the rationale. Tabcorp is promising A$30 million in annual run-rate savings by the end of year two, extracted from consolidated data centers, software contracts, corporate functions, and product teams currently building the same things twice. On those numbers, management expects earnings per share to rise from year two and reach double-digit accretion from year three. Every one of those figures is a forecast, and forecasts about integration savings have a well-known habit of shrinking on contact with reality.
BetMakers’ board, for its part, has unanimously recommended the deal, on the usual conditions: no superior offer appears, and an independent expert agrees the scheme serves shareholders. The directors intend to vote their own shares in favor under those terms, and key managers are expected to stay on to run the integration rather than heading for the exit.
The target for completion is the third quarter of Tabcorp’s 2027 financial year, meaning early 2027. Between now and then sit the shareholder vote, court approval, Australian merger clearance, and sign-off from gambling and racing regulators in every market BetMakers touches.