Crownbet to be a new betting brand from Crown International? - 15th March 2015

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Crownbet has been registered as a betting brand trademark by James Packer's Crown Resorts International and could be set to launch in Australia.



The Sydney Morning Herald reports lawyers for the $10bn Crown Resorts international have successfully registered a trademark with the government trade market office for Crownbet.

Late last year, Crown International invested in online bookmaker BetEasy to form a joint-venture they hope will dominate the Australian betting industry, and the registration of the trademark fuels speculation that that $10bn casino group will launch Crownbet in the future.

BetEasy, owned by Matt Tripp - the former head of Sportsbet, shocked larger bookmaking rivals last year by winning the contract to become the AFL's official betting partner for the next five years when they paid $10 million annually for the term of the contract from the 2015 season.

They beat off competition from Tabcorp's TAB, which previously held the AFL rights, as well as Sportsbet and William Hill Australia to secure the partnership deal for the AFL.

Crown Resorts International operators two casinos in Perth and Melbourne and there are one of the Australia's most significant taxpayers contributing two-thirds of its pre-tax profit to governments, more than any other ASX 50 company.

Crown are also working on two other casino development projects in Sydney and Brisbane.

Crown already controlled the Betfair betting exchange and the tie-up with BetEasy give them access to fixed odds betting and create a huge brand to take on the European bookmakers.

Crown took a 67% controlling interest in BetEasy as part of the takeover and the remaining 33% is retained by existing BetEasy owners including Tripp.