The battle to buy PointsBet took an ugly turn at a shareholders meeting on Wednesday as one of two suitors, Betr Entertainment, claimed its votes against a competing proposal from Mixi were “impermissibly excluded.”

In a release, PointsBet stated that 95.7% of votes cast in Wednesday’s ballot were in favour of the offer from Japanese entertainment company Mixi, and only 4.31% voted against. The Australian gaming operator, which offers online casino and sports betting in Ontario’s regulated market, confirmed that as a result, shareholders have approved the Mixi takeover and the deal will proceed.

That acquisition has been approved by the board, selected over an offer from Betr that PointsBet said lacked financial certainly and did not represent a superior scheme to Mixi’s.

However, Betr is PointsBet’s largest shareholder with 19.9% of shares and its leaders had stated multiple times that they intended to vote their entire shareholding against the Mixi deal. According to the Australian Financial Review, even PointsBet said this week that it expected that, as a result of Betr’s large holding, Mixi’s scheme would be voted down.

So, what happened, according to Betr?

Betr alleged in its own statement that its votes were excluded by the chair of the meeting with “no basis for doing so.” PointsBet’s fellow Australian sportsbook has demanded a recount.

“The company confirms it validly lodged its proxy vote against the scheme as recorded in the PointsBet announcement this morning,” wrote Betr. “Betr did not, at any time, revoke that proxy.

“Betr expects that the chair of the meeting will immediately conduct a recount of the vote and include the Betr proxy vote in full. If the chair of the meeting fails to do so and announce the results prior to the Second Court Hearing tomorrow morning, Betr will challenge the exclusion of its vote at tomorrow’s Second Court Hearing.”

What happened, according to PointsBet?

However, in a second PointsBet statement, the company entirely rejected that version of events, calling Betr’s claims “factually inaccurate and without basis.”

PointsBet countered that the chair of the meeting did not exclude Betr’s vote; rather, Betr itself revoked the proxy it had previously lodged and did not cast a vote at the meeting.

The company noted that the results of the meeting were declared following a poll overseen by a representative from PointsBet’s share registry, Computershare. It added that the information included in its initial results announcement accurately reflects the outcome of that poll as recorded and confirmed by Computershare.

“PointsBet understands, having confirmed with Computershare, that one of Betr’s senior company officers validly logged into the Scheme Meeting virtually and revoked Betr’s proxy on Betr’s behalf prior to the close of the poll,” wrote PointsBet. “This person then did not lodge any votes for Betr at the Scheme Meeting. As noted above, this explanation is consistent with the records of the Scheme Meeting maintained by Computershare.”

What happens next?

As referenced by both companies, an Australian federal court hearing is set for Thursday (Australian time), where the situation may or may not become clearer.

For now, the official results of the vote means not only that the Mixi deal is approved but also consequently that Betr cannot proceed with plans for its own off-market takeover bid.

However, that company said in its statement that, “in the interim, Betr continues to prepare its unconditional takeover offer direct to PointsBet shareholders and will share further details with the market in coming days.”

Why should the Canadian industry care?

PointsBet operates only in Australia and Ontario, and the Canadian province is the only market in which it offers online casino gaming as well as sports betting. The company has confirmed several times it plans to enter Alberta when that province launches commercial online gambling next year.

However, Betr’s bid includes a non-binding proposal from Hard Rock Digital to acquire “certain assets which relate to PointsBet’s Canadian operations.” Betr Chair Matthew Tripp said earlier this year that those assets largely comprise a player database. None of the parties involved have commented on that aspect of the offer to Canadian Gaming Business.