After shelling out approximately $244 million in March to acquire the local assets of British sportsbetting giant William Hill, Australian online sports wagering provider, CrownBet Proprietary Limited, is now reportedly considering re-branding its recently-enlarged business under the new Sportingbet moniker.
According to a Friday report from The Australian newspaper, the possibility of a re-brand first emerged in April after Canadian firm The Stars Group Incorporated, which is responsible for the PokerStars and Full Tilt online gaming brands, increased its majority stake in CrownBet Proprietary Limited to around 80%.
The Australian cited Rafi Ashkenazi, Chief Executive Officer for Toronto-headquartered, The Stars Group Incorporated, as explaining that the possible new name for CrownBet Proprietary Limited’s operations had been selected by the boss for the Melbourne-based bookmaker, Matt Tripp, and is expected to lead to the newly-enlarged antipodean firm saving about $38 million by 2020.
Although CrownBet Proprietary Limited has yet to officially comment on the possibility of a re-brand, the newspaper reported that the potential new name for the business was presumably chosen as a result of Tripp’s previous involvement with former Australia-facing online sportsbetting operator, Sportingbet, which he helped to establish before selling to William Hill as part of a 2013 deal worth about $606.3 million.
The media outlet also reported that the acquisition of William Hill’s Australian operation by CrownBet Proprietary Limited overnight created the nation’s third-largest sportsbetting provider. Its current presence ‘down under’ is purportedly only topped by Tabcorp Holdings Limited, which recently merged with rival Tatts Group Limited as part of a $8.3 billion deal, and the local Sportsbet brand of Dublin-based bookmaking giant Paddy Power Betfair.