Online Poker Could Come Back to Australia with PokerStars' Acquisition of CrownBet

Many were ready to pronounce online poker dead in Australia with last year’s passing of an anti-gambling bill, but things seem to have taken an unexpected turn for the better: The Stars Group acquired the Aussie sports betting site CrownBet for over $100 million; and recently, under their new leadership CrownBet bought the Australian branch of William Hill.

After being voted on multiple times in both chambers of the Australian legislature  the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016 passed and became law at last in August 2016, much to the demise of the Australian poker community. The new law meant that companies holding international gambling licenses cannot provide service to people in Australia - they need to apply for a specific Australian license for that, a procedure that is impossible for a foreign-based company under current circumstances. Major poker rooms such as PokerStars and 888 left the Australian market swiftly in return.

However, on February 27th this year a solution seems to have been found: the parent company of PokerStars, The Stars Group - formerly Amaya - has acquired 62% equity share in the Australian sports betting site CrownBet, an online sportsbook already operating with a local gambling license. Stars paid US$117.7 million for the deal.

CrownBet, founded in 2014 is exclusively offering sports betting for their users, no poker is available to play yet - but that may very well change at some point. Many sportsbooks launched their own poker clients before - such as Unibet, Bet365 and William Hill - and with The Stars Group being involved, it seems more likely the Aussie betting site might do the same.

Stars Group CEO Rafi Ashkenazi had this to say about the deal in the press release:

“We are excited to enter the regulated Australian sportsbook market with CrownBet. CrownBet has become one of the fastest growing online sportsbooks in Australia through its strong management team, proprietary technology, mobile app, unique partnerships and market-leading loyalty program”.

CrownBet is fast growing indeed - their unaudited yearly revenue went from A$76.5 million in 2015 to A$204 million in 2017. 

Matthew Tripp, the CEO of CrownBet since its founding in 2014 kept his position at the top after the Stars purchase. He was the one who was happy to announce CrownBet’s first new undertaking under the new ownership: they bought up William Hill’s Australian outpost for US$300 million.

"We made no secret about our plans to grow through the acquisition, and we're pleased to have prevailed here against stiff competition" - Tripp said about the bidding war that was ultimately won by his company against their Australian bookie competitors Sportsbet and Tabcorp.

William Hill representatives admitted that the recent new regulations necessitated the selling of their Australian branch, evidently.

But The Stars Group isn't disheartened by the new Aussie online gambling restrictions anymore, it seems, since they are back in the Australian market with the new major deals - the two totaling US$417.7 million.