The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had granted informal approval for the combination, which will now await the green light from the country’s Foreign Investment Review Board.

The merger is expected to deliver pretax cost synergies of £140m a year, along with opportunities to cross-sell products to one another’s customers in international markets and lower finance costs, the two companies said in October. 

The merged group will be boosted by a partnership in the US with FOX Sports, which will have the right to acquire an 18.5% stake in Flutter’s FanDuel US business from 2021.

The combined group will serve customers in more than 100 countries.

Around half of its current income is generated in Britain and Ireland, with 15% in Australia, 5% in the US and 31% from the rest of the world.