Q&A: Matt Tripp on advising BetMakers and the state of the Australian betting market

Matt Tripp is a name synonymous with Australian bookmaking having craved out connections and relationships with some of the biggest names in the sector. As chairman of Sportsbet, Tripp amassed a reputation as the man to know in the market, after spells as CEO of CrownBet and of BetEasy before its takeover by The Stars Group (TSG). After a year out of the market following his departure as BetEasy CEO, Tripp has chosen to return to the sector he knows so well through a A$25m investment in B2B sports betting technology supplier BetMakers, a firm he will now advise.

Below, he talks EGR through the reasons behind his return and why he believes BetMakers can reach the very top of the global sports betting technology pyramid.

EGR Intel: Why choose to effectively re-enter the gambling market with BetMakers?

Matt Tripp (MT): I think the main reason is because I’ve had such detailed exposure to BetMakers over the course of the last decade or so, as a party on the other side of the fence dealing with them as a customer, namely via BetEasy when they really started to get traction. I also had a lot of dealings with the BetMakers hierarchy, particularly Todd Buckingham and his team prior to that and during my Sportsbet days. Based on my experiences of the market, I don’t believe many, if any, of the online wagering operators in Australia at the moment could survive without the BetMakers service given what they bring to these operators in terms of data, content and racing feeds, etc.

They are very important to make the wheels of the racing industry turn for some of the biggest scale operators now in the space. Second to that, I think the technology that they have worked on and developed over the course of the last four or five years is best in class.

The last piece of the puzzle that really attracted me to them was the fact that the US at the moment is fairly fertile ground, particularly when you look at it in line with what’s taken place in Australia in the last 20 years. Australians’ per capita are one of the highest spending nations in the world when it comes to wagering and I don’t see the US being too different to that in time. There are probably a dozen or so credible online operators here in Australia, and I think it’s a multiple of 10 or 15 times that in the US within the next three years. I can’t see any reason why BetMakers shouldn’t be on the front foot and leading the charge in tapping into all those operators that are going to offer not just racing products, but sports products. I do think there is a massive opportunity in the US and other parts of the world where this business can really flourish.

EGR Intel: What part did the Global Tote deal play in your decision-making process?

MT: I really like the idea of the Global Tote. While it has taken a little bit of time to get some traction, I think if parimutuel is to survive in Australia, a product or an offering like the Global Tote is the way to play it. I think all participants in our industry in Australia, be it the racing industry themselves or the wagering operators, would win out of the Global Tote.

The wagering operators’ offering is a best Tote product and, from my understanding, it is a loss leader for most operators when you weigh up the associated costs and taxes. I think a Global Tote product would provide further liquidity for operators, and further liquidity for Tabcorp if they were to align with the Global Tote. Certainly, the agile nature of the Tote means it would be rolled out and be bespoke for all operators to determine their own take-out rates and provide them with that level of flexibility. I think it is a really compelling product and offering, not just here in Australia, but for anyone that wanted to participate in parimutuel around the world.

EGR Intel: How will you lend your expertise BetMakers on a day-to-day basis?

MT: I have developed some reasonable experience in M&A over the course of my career and I think that BetMakers provides an excellent offering to anyone, whether they are in start-up mode, whether they are looking to expand their racing offering through parimutuel or fixed odds, or just broadly through their racing content.

My role as a strategic adviser is to help open doors, make introductions and then help finalise and close deals on behalf of BetMakers. That combined with the personnel that are running it, who I have an enormous amount of respect for, makes us a formidable combination that I think we can really drive growth from.

EGR Intel: After the completion of the Sportech deal and the capital raise, the company will have $110m in cash, do you see the company undertaking M&A?

MT: Definitely. We are always on the lookout and I think there are some good opportunities out there, some of which I probably can’t touch on at the moment, but there are certainly some opportunities that we are looking at to turbocharge our growth, not just here in Australia but globally. A good portion of our revenue comes from the US now, and I believe the US within 12 months will be our biggest revenue generator. I keep touching on this but with the team that has been assembled and the cash that’s now on hand, I think there’s a formidable combination to go and identify opportunities quickly, be it through Matt Davey, the largest shareholder, or Nick Chan, the chairman. Obviously, Todd Buckingham the CEO is very well credentialed. These guys all have their eye on one thing, and that is fast-tracking our growth and making sure that BetMakers is front of mind for all operators globally when it comes to B2B services.

EGR Intel: Where do you think the best place would be to start scaling the company up both organically and inorganically?

MT: I think the US is the best place for us to start. There are opportunities there now that are very close to being consummated. I also think there are some significant opportunities in Australia. It is no secret that there is interest in Tabcorp from several operators. Whoever ends up with Tabcorp, even if Tabcorp themselves decide to hang on to their wagering and media business through a demerger, there is a role for BetMakers to have a place within Tabcorp in some capacity.

EGR Intel: What is your opinion of Australian gambling regulation?

MT: There has been such an overhaul over the course of the last decade, I will say that it has probably found a balance now. There was a community backlash a few years ago around the proliferation of advertising, around the ability to advertise certain promotions and certain levels of generosity that had not been seen in this market before. Things have now found a level where Point of Consumption taxes and product fees have reached a point where these more aggressive strategies have been slightly curtailed, so it is currently a reasonable balance.

EGR Intel: Where for you is the untapped potential of the Australian market?

MT: In terms of untapped potential, I think scale is going to win. It would be nigh on impossible to come into the Australian market now as a start-up operator. There is still growth in the market, just not at the rates we’ve experienced over the last decade.