News Limited has reported Tripp and his management team will sell their 20 percent interest in for $151m to the Stars Group, which has also agreed to pay another $100m in performance payments due after last year’s purchase of a majority stake in what was then CrownBet from James Packer’s Crown Resorts.
The announcement, made on Wednesday, December 4, comes ahead of the mooted $US6bn ($8.8bn) global merger next year between TSG and Flutter Entertainment, the London-listed owner of BetEasy’s Australian corporate bookmaker rival Sportsbet.
Tripp is set to be replaced as chief executive of BetEasy on January 1 by the firm’s present director of strategy and regulatory affairs, Andrew Menz, but will stay as a non-executive president of the business.
“I’m pleased to see our long-term succession plan come to fruition and I’ll be assisting Andrew in more of the strategic matters rather than operating. I’ll be assisting the new executive with whatever they need,” he told News Limited.
The proposed merger needs regulatory approval in Australia and abroad, and a shareholder vote, though it is likely both Australian brands will operate until at least after next year’s spring racing carnival.
Tripp, who attended Sacred Heart College before moving to Assumption College, is an online wagering pioneer and the son of Alan and Kate Tripp. Alan was a trailblazer in the industry starting with the No.1 Betting Shop in Vanuatu in the 1990s.
Matt Tripp bought Sportsbet for $250,000 in 2005 and turned it into a market leader before selling out in six years later in a $338m deal with Paddy Power Betfair (now Flutter).
He went on to start BetEasy in 2013 with a group of investors originally involved in Sportsbet. James Packer’s Crown Resorts bought a controlling stake in the company, which operated for a time as CrownBet, before Stars Group took its 80 percent stake early last year.
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