Photo: Skylar Kang

How rich is Sportsbet?

It's one of the deals that has helped take Sportsbet from a market value of $250,000 in 2005 to its current $12 billion to $14 billion. The bookmakers also pay between $1 million and $3 million for gambling at the ground.

theage.com.au - The AFL's 'engine': How gambling money underpins footy - The Age

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Make Your Bookie Cry And Pull The Hair By Generating $23,187

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Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size When Matthew Tripp walked into the office of AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan in early 2014, he pitched a big vision. The then boss of an also-ran sports gambling company called BetEasy knew his main competitor, the TAB, was paying the AFL $500,000 a year to be the league’s official wagering partner, and he wanted a piece of it. By the time he walked out of the meeting, Tripp had made an astonishing offer. He would pay $6 million – 12 times the TAB’s price – for the exclusive right of his company to advertise on AFL platforms, as well as first access to official broadcasters, Seven, Fox and, as it was then, Telstra. (Telstra has since lost the digital rights, which are now owned by Foxtel streaming service Kayo.) Matthew Tripp has become a rich man from sports gambling in Australia. Credit:Arsineh Houspian For the AFL, swapping the known quantity of the TAB for what was then an unknown operation was a risk. But McLachlan had been sold on Tripp’s tenacity and his vision for the game. According to recent reports, Tripp – who sold his remaining stake in BetEasy in 2019 in a $250 million deal – and his consortium are closing in on a deal that would see him help launch News Corp’s own revolutionary wagering company, which will rival Sportsbet, the parent company of BetEasy, in size and power. For both men, the gamble has paid off. The millions have flowed to the AFL and in 2020 it inked another five-year sponsorship deal with Sportsbet. It costs Sportsbet between $12 million and $15 million a year, though a senior AFL source, who did not wish to be identified, told The Age the AFL only received $6 million to $8 million of that. But sponsorship is just one of the four ways gambling money pours into Australia’s most popular football competition. The TV stations that pay for AFL broadcast rights are partly funded by the huge advertising spending of the betting companies. The on-ground advertising of gambling companies — which could have been abolished by the Andrews government — is worth up to $3 million to the AFL. Loading And behind the scenes, an older and much more lucrative deal is also quietly funnelling cash to the AFL. Few know it exists and the AFL does not like to talk about it, but “product fees” are the mother lode, and experts are concerned they are increasing the game’s dependency on gambling even further. The AFL isn’t alone in collective product fees. Almost all major sporting codes, including the NRL, the A-League, the NBL and the Australian Open all have integrity deals with corporate bookmakers. “It’s the engine beneath the might of the AFL,” Tripp told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. “It’s a massive reliance now … If you rip gambling revenue out, they’re going to say: ‘Well, what the hell do we do now?’” A gambling revolution In the early 2000s, the potential of sports betting conducted online had become apparent. The Howard government introduced legislation to try to control it. But a few years later, the markets were expanding and the money flowing through them was growing fast. The AFL, then led by Andrew Demetriou, had had enough. He called the bookmakers together to demand a cut. Officially referred to as an “integrity agreement”, the deal that emerged means that, for every dollar made by corporate bookmakers (Sportsbet, Ladbrokes, Neds and others), the AFL would receive 10¢. The money is known as a “product fee”. In essence, it’s a tax. It mirrored similar deals that had long been in place between horse racing and the TAB. Tripp has become a rich man from sports gambling in Australia, and Sportsbet’s Australian operation has made it the jewel in the crown of its Ireland-based parent company, Flutter. He said the deal was a good one for the AFL. “Imagine you’re putting on the party and it’s costing you a fortune. Suddenly, others want to jump in late and enjoy the festivities. You need to pay if you want to come,” he said.

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In the early stages of the agreement, the AFL was raking in about $15 million to $20 million annually from its 10 per cent cut of gambling. Two senior wagering sources have told The Age that number would be more than $30 million in 2022, possibly as high as $40 million. The government also takes its cut. Since 2019, most states and territories have introduced a “point of consumption” tax on sports betting. In Victoria, it’s 10 per cent of the net wagering revenue. In survey after survey, footy fans say the perceived influence of sports betting on the game – along with rule changes – are the things they dislike most about the AFL. But Tripp, the gambling industry mogul who set up Sportsbet’s link with the AFL, says of the gambling revenue flowing into footy, “there’s only one way it’s going to go”. And that is up. Integrity and ‘optics’ Demetriou’s deal with the bookmakers had a legitimate integrity element. It meant the AFL had full oversight of every bet laid on football, and ensured the bookmakers would analyse and flag any potentially suspicious bet. If a player’s relative, for example, placed a bet on a game that the player had the power to influence, the AFL would be notified. Prior to what the AFL calls the integrity agreement, it was flying blind. “If we took that tool away from the AFL, we’d be back in the draconian days of illegal and offshore wagering,” Tripp said. “This would compromise the player behaviour and the integrity of the game more broadly, there’s no doubt about that.” Gillon McLachlan (left) and Andrew Demetriou. Credit:Fairfax Media The flow of money under the product fee arrangement places the AFL in the position of directly profiting from the proceeds of gambling. One of Gillon McLachlan’s favourite words in his tenure has been “optics”; and the optics of this relationship with sports betting could be seen as harmful. This year, the AFL has changed the day on which the opening game of the season is played. Instead of starting with the traditional Richmond v Carlton fixture on a Thursday, the league has opted to instead play the grand final rematch between Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs next Wednesday night. The game would have otherwise been played on a Saturday or Sunday. By moving it to Wednesday, the league has created a stand-alone game. A senior Sportsbet source told The Age and Herald their company alone stood to make an extra million dollars in round one because the match would stand clear of weekend events such as other AFL games, rival sports and horse racing.

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