Matthew Tripp has big plans for betr, the newest betting operator to enter the Australian wagering scene. Tripp, the former chief of both Sportsbet and BetEasy, wants to launch the News Corp betting operator before the Caulfield Cup and the Everest Carnival. His idea is to draw in young bettors and to instantly grow the business in one of the most completive markets in the world.
Not Going to Play Second Fiddle to Anyone
Tripp hasn’t spoken publicly since plans about the new betting operator were announced. In his first interview, the Australian bookmaking personality outlined his plans for the new bookie and hinted at asking other media businesses to become betr’s strategic partners.
News Corp Australia and Tripp started discussions about launching a new betting operator in 2018. Four years later, betr is now on the verge of getting a Western Australia wagering license via WA TAB and is trying to do the same in Victoria where it has already started discussions with Victorian authorities regarding a betting concession.
Tripp said that WA TAB was “a must” for a start-up such as betr and that the News Corp Australia bookie didn’t enter the market to “play second fiddle.” Tripp added that they wanted to grow the bookie “organically” through the partnerships they have created and are also looking into mergers and acquisitions.
Matthew Tripp turned Sportsbet and BetEasy into household names in Australia, and he intends to do the same with betr. Tripp boldly predicted that betr would become a “tier one operator very quickly” and, in time, grow into the biggest betting brand in Australia.
Leveraging the Media-Sportsbook Symbiosis
The former Sportsbet chief said that he got excited by the idea of launching a new bookmaker because he saw that he could leverage News Corp’s media assets. News Corp owns Foxtel (pivotal in Tripp’s plans) and is also behind news outlets such as The Australian and The Daily Telegraph.
However, things didn’t go as fast as the parties involved had liked. Even though Tripp and News Corp knew that they would launch that new operator “when the time was right,” the talks between them stalled because of the merger between Flutter Entertainment and Stars Group. According to Tripp, the merger forced them to reconsider their position and come up with some type of outcome.
In that new outcome, News Corp owns 33% of betr shares. Tekkorp Capital and Broadmeadows-based BetMakers Technology Group are also in the ownership structure of the new venture.
Betr CEO Andrew Menz said that the media-bookmaker partnership worked “spectacularly well” for Sky BETand they were trying to replicate that with betr. The Murdochs have extensive experience in media-betting partnerships too, evident from their FOX Bet venture in the US and the failed SunBets brand in the UK.
Focusing on Young Punters
According to Menz, betr plans to target punters under 35 and spend millions on advertising to achieve that. Menz and Tripp feel that bettors under 35 are an untapped segment of the market.
Menz also spoke about betr’s intention to partner with the AFL and said that they would love to be in Foxtel AFL broadcasts and would instantly integrate betr into the Fox Footy broadcast.
Sportsbet is the current betting partner of the AFL, and as we reported a month ago, Australia’s most successful bookie is trying hard to extend its sponsorship of the league as it knows that betr is waiting for a chance to pounce.
First Glimpse
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