The betting exchange Betfair and bookmaker BetEasy have announced a joint venture. After experimenting with fixed odds products and sports multi betting, Betfair will focus purely on exchange betting with BetEasy providing fixed odds and tote wagering.
This venture is a result of James Packer’s Crown Resorts doing a deal with BetEasy owner Matthew Tripp, which effectively gives Crown Resorts control of BetEasy. Under the joint deal Crown Resorts will own two-thirds of the joint venture, with BetEasy owning the remaining third of the business. The intention is to build an Australian-owned operator that can compete with the large, foreign-owned competitors who currently dominate the online wagering market in Australia.
BetEasy CEO Matthew Tripp will run the joint venture. Tripp is the former owner of Sportsbet. He sold Sportsbet to Paddy Power in 2011 and entered into non-compete contract that ended in early 2014. Tripp acquired Betezy in March 2014 and re-branded the service as BetEasy in September the same year.
Betfair has been fully owned by Crown Resorts since they paid $10 million to buy out the 50% of Betfair Australiasia it didn’t already own from the UK company, Betfair Group.
From Tuesday, the 6th of January, Betfair customers looking to place non-exchange bets like Best of 4, racing exotics, and sport multis will be serviced by BetEasy. Crown has secured a trademark over the name Crown Bet, although the BetEasy brand will remain in place for now.
Existing Betfair customers will automatically be given a BetEasy account unless they choose to opt out of receiving a BetEasy membership. Starting today, Betfair customers can opt to select a percent of their Betfair funds that will be transfereed to their new BetEasy account on January 6. The percentage of the balance customers select to transfer will be calculated when the transfer takes place on January 6.
Customers whose Betfair username is not available at BetEasy will have a BetEasy account created with the letters ‘bf’ appended to the start of their BetEasy username (e.g. ‘johncitizen’ becomes ‘bfjohncitizen’, with no changes to the account details at Betfair. Customers who have only ever bet on the Betfair exchange will need to open an account with BetEasy directly.
Customers who have unsettled bets on ‘Bookmaker Mode’ products (like exotics, Best of 4 etc.) or Multis and elect to take up the offer of receiving a BetEasy account will receive the proceeds of any successful bets in their BetEasy account from the 5th January 2015 onwards. Customers who choose not to receive a BetEasy account will have oustanding bets settled in the usual manner with Betfair.
There will be no changes to betting on the Betfair exchange, with all exchange bets settled normally.