Posts Tagged ‘betting’

Ladbrokes buys Australian online company Betstar

Saturday, April 12th, 2014
Photo courtesy of Play Among Friends Paf on Flickr

Photo courtesy of Play Among Friends Paf on Flickr

In the battleground that is Australian online betting, Ladbrokes has made a major move by purchasing Betstar for 12.4 million pounds.

This marks the second foray into Australia for the company, which bought online company Bookmaker.com.au and launched a website in Australia last September. Ladbrokes is Britain’s second-biggest bookmaker.

Rival European bookmakers including Paddy Power and William Hill have also been expanding in Australia.

Betstar has around 40,000 registered customers and generated earnings of A$12.9 million in the year to March.

“Australia represents one of the most vibrant regulated sports betting markets in the world and today’s announcement will see us add new customers to our growing presence,” said Damian Cope, managing director of Ladbrokes’ international arm.

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William Hill buys Australia’s biggest online gambling site

Tuesday, August 13th, 2013

United Kingdom online betting giant William Hill has agreed to purchase Australian online betting firm Tom Waterhouse for at least A$34 million.

The online betting site has agreed to pay A$34 million up front and assume A$6 million in debt for tomwaterhouse.com.

It will pay up to A$70 million more on a sliding scale based on tomwaterhouse.com achieving earnings growth between A$10 million and A$30 million in 2015.

Tomwaterhouse.com was established in 2010 and is one of Australia’s fastest growing online racing and sports betting businesses.

It is a privately held company owned by managing director Tom Waterhouse and others and has around 80 employees based in Sydney, Melbourne and Darwin.

“We are pleased to have secured this acquisition,” Ralph Topping, CEO of William Hill. “International expansion is a key part of our growth strategy and making Australia our second home is a priority. Acquiring tomwaterhouse.com gives us a rapidly growing business that appeals to a complementary customer base.”

Australia has the world’s biggest gambling habit per capita.

To read more on this story, click here.