Irish buyers Stafford Group waits in wings of JJB deal if Sports Direct talks collapse At the time, the deal for the 31 shops was allowed to go through because it was seen as relatively small-beer. Diana Guy, who was deputy chairman of the regulator, was reported as saying that Sports Direct and JJB were "each other's closest competitors nationally" but that this would not change as a result of the 31 shops exchanging hands. Ms Guy went on to say that "competition" would depend on "the degree of overall competition between the two retailers at the national level." Under the current deal terms, a pre-pack administration would carve out a portion of shops from JJB's 180 stores. Sports Direct's already has 290 shops in its portfolio. On Tuesday, JD Sports, which was one of the original bidders for JJB's, decided to rule itself out of the sales process. A deal is expected by the end of this week.