Some of Australia's most astute professional punters have welcomed the move by a new corporate bookmaking company that allows clients to bet as much as they like and not have their accounts discontinued if they prove successful.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In the past three years, punters large and small have complained that their bets have been drastically cut back by corporate bookmakers and, if they manage to win regularly, their accounts are terminated.
On Tuesday, bookmaker Matthew Tripp will launch his new gambling operation, BetEasy. He is prepared to forego profits in order to boost turnover and says he will not downsize bets.
"We will be very accommodating," he said. "Those punters who have struggled in the past couple of years will be in for a pleasant surprise.
"I'm not just talking about professional punters, I'm talking about retail punters who ring up and want to back their horse. I've heard stories about people ringing up and wanting to have $1000 each way on a horse, but are told, 'No, you can only have $180 on it'.
"The farcical situation has occurred that professional punters have had to resort to asking friends, relatives, neighbours and even work friends to establish betting accounts that they can use in false names."
One of Australia's most respected punters, Barry Long, said on Monday: "This is a very good move by Tripp. He will certainly boost his turnover, but it's refreshing to see some of the corporates doing the right thing."
Long has for many years been concerned at the treatment of gamblers by corporate bookmakers and believes Tripp should be commended for his initiative.
"In my case I just want to bet and back a horse at the right price and then get paid," he said. "But at the same time I want bookmakers across the board to pay what is right and proper back to our racing industry - it's vital that racing get every stream of revenue."
Tripp acquired the old Betezy business in March after leaving Sportsbet a year earlier following his full sale to Irish giant Paddy Power.
He has since changed the brand to BetEasy and employed many of his old executive team.
Tripp maintains that within 12 to 18 months his new venture will become profitable, although it would require doubling BetEasy's annual turnover to about $700-$800 million, only a small amount of the $20 billion Tripp believes the online wagering market to be worth.
An extra obstacle is the increasing race fields fees from horse racing authorities in Victoria and Queensland, but Tripp said aggressively taking on punters to quickly grow the business was viable.
"There's hard work ahead, but we think we can get there pretty quickly without a lot of pain," he said.
"I've always been willing to forego margin in favour of turnover and be able to find a way to ensure customers get serviced and the doors stay open while generating enough margin to satisfy my shareholders.
"I think we are in a position where we can do things a bit differently and separate ourselves from the pack."
Tripp, 40, made about $115 million from the Sportsbet sale but said he wanted to maintain ownership of BetEasy in the long term, positioning it as the only Australian bookmaker, along with the listed Tabcorp and Tatts Group, without overseas operators such as Paddy Power, William Hill and Ladbrokes now dominating the corporate bookmaker scene.
