It was only weeks before last year's Melbourne Cup in early November that CrownBet chief executive Matthew Tripp was summoned to the luxury Colorado snow resort Aspen by billionaire James Packer.
By October, Packer's Crown Resorts was in the midst of planning $700 million of asset sales and Packer told Tripp that Crown's 62 per cent stake in Tripp's corporate bookmaker business was suddenly part of the big sell-off.
Only a couple of weeks later, and as soon as the Melbourne Cup carnival had ended with Emirates Stakes Day on Saturday, November 4, Tripp was on a plane to London and would then criss-cross the globe to execute a series of strategic moves that would eventually lead to Toronto-listed The Stars Group committing up to $785 million on Australian gambling assets in the space of seven days.
That dramatic period, which finally ended this week, will markedly change the hotly-contested Australian wagering sector.
It began with the meeting at Packer's lavish Aspen property. Tripp tells AFR Weekend that Packer was insistent he find a taker for Crown's stake in CrownBet but there "is no bad blood there and a lot of mutual respect. James was very reasonable about explaining his decision to focus on his core assets [of casinos in Perth, Melbourne and, soon, Sydney]. We agreed on a price and away we went."
Tripp's preference was to keep his management team in place and to simply find a buyer that would pay Packer's asking price of $150 million, having only sold his company BetEasy into a joint venture with Crown in late 2015.
It was not an easy scenario. He started in London, meeting the global bosses of Paddy Power, William Hill and Ladbrokes – each has a presence in Australia – and soon enough, as the close-knit global gambling community started to gossip, the news soon reached Christopher Coyne.
A one-time chief marketing officer at Crown In Melbourne, Coyne had in September moved to The Stars Group as its new chief customer officer. Coyne suggested to Tripp he should have a conversation with Stars CEO Rafi Ashkenazi in Toronto.
Strong commercial case
Tom Waterhouse's future at William Hill is uncertain after its Australian business was bought by CrownBet. Louie Douvis Tripp says he quickly identified The Stars Group, best known for its PokerStars brand, as the most complementary fit, though he had approached other investors and even investigated debt financing as an option to buy out the 62 per cent stake.
"They've got 115 million customers and they'd be the first to admit their wagering offering is a work in progress. So we are keen to help there and they are keen on Australia as well with the potential for the ban on online poker to be lifted here."
A complicating factor was as Tripp was trying to clinch his deal, William Hill's Australian assets went on the market in late January. For Tripp, combining the two deals quickly became the dream.
It took until the evening of Sunday, February 25, for The Stars Group board to sign off on the CrownBet deal, though the deal was not revealed publicly for three days. Before then, CrownBet and Stars had secretly lodged a bid for William Hill with Citi. Tripp joined Sportsbet, Ladbrokes and bet365 in the race for William Hill.
James Packer met with Matthew Tripp during last year's Spring Carnival. Bohdan Warchomij By the end of last week the shortlist was whittled to CrownBet and Sportsbet. A frantic two days of bidding, during which both parties had to lob $10 million increases to their bid, finally led to CrownBet and Stars landing a knockout $300 million blow on Tuesday morning.
Tripp says the merger with William Hill makes commercial sense. "We are stronger in Victoria and we've struggled to make the big breakthrough in NSW, which is where they are very strong, and in Queensland."
There is still the question as to whether William Hill's prominent Australian CEO, Tom Waterhouse, stays on.
"I've only had a two-minute chat with Tom and I'm not sure about his intentions," says Tripp. "I'm a big fan of his and I'm keen for him to stay on in the business. But we will see what he wants to do."
Then there is a looming point of consumption tax spread across most states, of up to 15 per cent on every bet – which corporate bookmakers will struggle to absorb and Tripp admits is "worrying".
But Tripp may also have broader horizons. The Stars Group will be well placed should American states loosen restrictions on sports betting, as has been widely tipped. "We think we have the expertise to do really well there. So I think I could be spending more time in North America."