Australian gambling operator CrownBet has kicked off its planned rebrand as BetEasy with a new advertising campaign created by Melbourne-based ad agency The Monkeys.
The rebrand is part of the ongoing merger between the operator and William Hill’s Australian business, which CrownBet purchased from the British bookmaker early in 2018. Under the terms of the acquisition deal, CrownBet is supposed to stop using the William Hill brand by October. The move comes amid a great amount of consolidation in Australia’s gambling market.
William Hill announced in January that a sale of its continuously underperforming Australian business was under discussion. News about the betting service’s eventual sale to CrownBet broke at the end of February following an extremely competitive bidding process. At about the same time, Canadian gambling giant The Stars Group bought a majority stake in CrownBet from Australian casino operator Crown Resorts.
Reports emerged in May that CrownBet would undertake a rebrand to mark the beginning of a new era in the company’s history. The company originally considered to change its name to Sportingbet, the name of an Australian betting service once owned by the family of the company’s founder, gambling industry veteran Matt Tripp.
However, the Australian business of Irish gambling giant Paddy Power Betfair challenged CrownBet’s choice of name in Federal Court, arguing that it sounded too familiar to its own Sportsbet operation and that this might confuse customers that the two brands are the same or related in one way or another. The Federal Court sided with Paddy Power Betfair and issued an order to block CrownBet’s rebrand temporarily.
The company announced recently that it would instead rebrand as BetEasy, the name by which it first began operating.
New Ad Campaign
As mentioned above, CrownBet’s rebrand advertising campaign is led by Melbourne-based ad agency The Monkeys. The new ad features two ambassadors for the BetEasy brand – Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting and actress Nicki Whelan. The two appear in a 30-second spot to announce the arrival of “bigger, better betting experience.”
CrownBet has said that it aims to set a “new tone and standard” in the Australian betting market. The merger of the company with William Hill’s Australian business is creating the nation’s third largest betting service, Tabcorp and Paddy Power Betfair’s Sportsbet being the largest ones.
Although CrownBet has already secured a significant share of the Australian betting market, establishing its new brand might not be an easy task as the space has become extremely competitive over the past several years. In addition, multiple regulatory hurdles are expected to pose significant challenges before operators and their further growth in the market. The introduction of the so-called point-of-consumption tax in almost all Australian states and territories with rates varying from 8% to 15% on local gross gambling revenue is set to be one such major hurdle.
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