Ladbrokes to acquire second Australian operator

Ladbrokes is set to make its second acquisition in the Australian online wagering market after agreeing to buy Melbourne-based bookie Eskander’s Betstar for a price eGaming Review understands to be around AU$20m (£11m).

Betstar owner Alan Eskander, who formed the company in 2007, began listening to offers late last year and that Ladbrokes’ bid was accepted in the past few days, according to sources close to the matter. The deal is expected to be announced in the next 24 hours.

Ladbrokes fought off a number of rival bids including an early offer from Unibet and the recently acquired BetEasy whose final offer was submitted in late March.

The deal will see Ladbrokes, which entered the Australian market with the £13m purchase of Gaming Investments in September last year, acquire Betstar’s customer database.

It plans to migrate the operator’s existing database onto the Ladbrokes Australia platform, however the Betstar brand will not be dropped immediately due to concerns loyal customers will take their business elsewhere.

Eskander told the Australian Financial Review last year that the company attracts annual revenues of between $250m and $300m and claimed the operator had more than 100,000 customers.

It is unknown at this stage whether key personnel will be kept on by Ladbrokes Australia, which is based in Brisbane.

Ladbrokes declined to comment on this story when contacted by eGR.

Rival bidder BetEasy was bought by Sportbet founder Matt Tripp last month and had been tipped as the favourite to snap up Betstar ““ seen by most as the last viable acquisition target in the Australian market ““ as well.

However eGR understands Tripp was not prepared to offer more than around $15m for the business.