BetEasy To Launch As Last Of Australian Betting Sites
Matt Tripp will make his return to corporate bookmaking with the launch of BetEasy on Tuesday and the gambling entrepreneur is aiming to win the hearts of Australian punters by re-investing profits at home.
The highly competitive Australian internet sportsbook market has witnessed an influx of global gaming companies and Tripp is counting on loyalty to home-produced services in his battle against online giants like William Hill, Ladbrokes and Paddy Power.
Tripp has served out a three-year non-compete period after selling his stake in Sportsbet to Paddy Power and returns to online sportsbetting after acquiring BetEzy.com.au earlier this year. The sportsbook will relaunch under the BetEasy banner with a new desktop site and iOS app on Tuesday and Tripp is planning an aggressive assault to win market share.
In addition to appealing as the “last Australian operator on the shelf”, the punting entrepreneur is promising customers “a fairer go” than his online competitors.
“Australians are fairly parochial in the way they go about their purchasing – people like to buy Australian,” Tripp told eGaming Review. “And while all the other bookies send their profits offshore back to their homeland, we re-invest it into the Australian economy. I think there’s merit in that.”
The launch will be backed up with generous offers and customers downloading the mobile betting app will receive a free bet on Saturday’s AFL Grand Final, even if they don’t deposit.
“We’ve got some things up our sleeve which will certainly grab the attention and win the hearts and minds of the Australian public,” he said.
Tripp believes the European-owned companies don’t understand the Australian market and has been working on a package to gain the lion’s share of the market. The new internet betting website has been developed in-house over the last 11 months and launches in time for the Spring Carnival.
“They don’t seem to be offering the right products,” he said. “We feel there’s a gap in the market for an Australian-owned company servicing the local punters and their needs.
“The critical area is getting the technology right. We intend to be market leaders and we’ve had computer nerds programming a whole new concept for us.”
“Our new website, tablet and app will be different to anything that has appeared before.’’
Tripp and his backers bought BetEzy for less than $10 million, around 6000 regular customers and 100,000 registered customers will be transferred to the new platform on launch.