MIXI, the Japanese company at the centre of a takeover bid for PointsBet, has built a profitable betting business in Japan’s highly regulated sports betting market in just five years. It is banking on its social betting focus making a similarly major mark in Australia.
When publicly listed Japanese company MIXI launched in Australia via the betM brand during the post-pandemic wagering boom, it barely made a ripple.
New wagering brands, enabled by the availability of white-label betting platforms, were popping up every week in Australia throughout this period. The number of corporate bookmakers jumped from 27 to 88 in the two years from March 2021 to March 2023.
With a brand not unlike many of the other fresh faces, there was nothing to suggest betM may stand out from the crowd.
But the difference was that this was the first Japanese-owned company to have secured a betting licence in Australia. It wasn’t just any Japanese company. MIXI is a behemoth.
MIXI is about to make a major mark on the Australian landscape through its proposed acquisition of PointsBet in a $350 million deal, which has the support of the PointsBet board and will go to a shareholder vote in June.
So who are MIXI?
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