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James Packer’s Crown Resorts looks poised to enter the online betting industry, possibly in partnership with Australia’s new enfant terrible of the sector, Matthew Tripp.
Melbourne-based Crown has filed to lock up a new betting trademark, CrownBet, and was reported in the Australian press last week to be in talks with Mr Tripp, whose BetEasy brand recently beat out Tabcorp, William Hill Australia and his former company Sportsbet to score a five-year sponsorship deal with the Australian Football League valued at A$50 million.
The 41-year-old Mr Tripp built Sportsbet into one of the fastest-growing online-only bookies before selling it to Irish betting giant Paddy Power. Earlier this year, he paid A$10 million for the assets of troubled bookmaker BetEZY renamed it, and engineered a turnaround.
Crown is no stranger to online betting. The company owns the Australian subsidiary of London-based betting exchange giant Betfair and is reported to be interested in using it to tap into the growing popularity of fixed-odds betting.
Mr Tripp could not be reached for comment, the Sydney Morning Herald said. A spokesman for Crown declined to comment on the new trademark or the potential deal.
