Oceania

Targeting further expansion in the Australian online sports betting market, William Hill is set to rebrand its Sportingbet Australia business (sportingbet.com.au) to WilliamHill.com.au this week. Existing Sportingbet clients will be migrated to the global betting giant’s new local website, WilliamHill.com.au. New clients will also be able to sign-up through the site. William Hill acquired the Sportingbet Australia business, which included Centrebet, …

Paddy Power owned Australian betting operator Sportsbet.com.au won ‘Operator of the Year’ at the eGaming Review Australia Awards, held at the Sydney Shangri-La Hotel. Sportsbet.com.au beat competition from Australian focused betting operators TAB and Tom Waterhouse (William Hill) and international operator Betfair to claim the ‘Operator of the Year’ title. The Paddy Power Australian sports betting subsidiary also took home …

Australian gambling operator Tatts Group posts an H1 2014 (period ending 31 December 2014) net revenue increase of 14.6% to AUS $139.8 million (£70 million) as group revenues rose a modest 1.2% to AUS $1.51 billion. Tatts Group management stated that its online gambling division had driven H1 2014 improved performance, as the operator recorded 24.8% of wagering revenue generated …

Favourit, the socially designed sportsbook which recently launched with technology partner EveryMatrix is experiencing rapid growth since its launch in November 2014. Outperforming internal expectations and targets, the team is now actively working on assessing new product and market opportunities. Working as an API technology partner with EveryMatrix, Favourit’s “social” user experience gives punters greater insight and interaction with unique …

Robbie Cooke CEO of Australian sports betting and gambling operator Tatts Group has slammed Australian greyhound racing operations, stating that Tatts Group may be forced to withdraw advertising if shocking allegations of cheating and animal cruelty are true. A TV Exposé by ABC News showed shocking images of animal cruelty by individual greyhound trainers, who used animals such as piglets, …

ICC Cricket officials have banned a group of men from attending 2015 One Day Cricket World Cup matches (Australia/New Zealand) after they were suspected of being involved in illicit betting, undertaking a practice known as ‘courtsiding’. Courtsiding involves people at a game relaying information via smartphones or mobile communications devices to betting syndicates to take advantage of broadcasting time delays. The practice …

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has apparently waged war on live betting ahead of the Cricket World Cup, and warned that anyone caught breaking the rules would be barred from the whole tournament. Speaking to the media at the end of last week, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, head of the ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit, said that ‘pitch-siding’ went ‘far deeper’ …

European igaming and sports betting operator Unibet has appointed former Centrebet Head of Operations Peter Staunton as General Manager for its Australian business division, as the operator looks to expand its presence in the burgeoning but competitive Australian igaming market. Industry news source EGR Magazine reported that Staunton had begun his role at Unibet Australia last week, replacing outgoing GM …

William Hill’s Australian operation was the only one that increased its operating profit in the fourth quarter, thanks to the Spring Carnival period, with a 59% jump mitigating somewhat a 13% drop in retail operating profit and a 6% dip online. It meant that the group’s Q4 operating profit as a whole dropped 7%. On a full-year basis, Group net …