Then there is the AFL Grand Final. Others used the wager to bet on the Collingwood Magpies, who were one of a group of favourites to win the 2023 flag. Collingwood takes on the Brisbane Lions at the MCG on Saturday.
The company has spent the better part of this year trying to get those who held the grand final bets to cash out, offering them hundreds of dollars and vouchers.
On Friday, Betr emailed those who still held them, warning them it could take up to a week to deliver the money into accounts.
The hedge is on
The Panthers have dominated for the entirety of the NRL season, leading to Betr taking measures to hedge the potential losses.
Sport and racing bookmakers who have a large exposure to a particular outcome try to reduce potential losses through “betting back”. They place their own bets with other bookmakers on the same outcome, using those winnings to pay out its customers.
In an interview with AFR Weekend this week, Mr Tripp said he was “ambivalent” to the results of the NRL and AFL grand finals because of the way the company had reduced its exposure.
“The world out there thinks [a win for Penrith] is shocking results for us and that’s great, that gets them talking in the pubs and gets them talking on the street and on the racetracks,” he said.
Mr Tripp framed the potentially historic payout as a win for the company, suggesting users would keep the money in their accounts for more gambling ahead of the Spring Racing Carnival.
“If the Panthers win, nothing would make us happier,” he said. “We would have tens of millions of dollars injected back into the Betr ecosystem for punters for the next six weeks, which is the most exciting time of the year being Spring Carnival.”
It has not been a smooth ride for Mr Tripp and Betr’s investors since launching in April 2022. The company was founded as a three-way joint venture between Mr Tripp, Las Vegas consortium Tekkorp and News Corp.
All tipped start-up capital into the venture, with senior News Corp executives Mark Reinke and Peter Blunden joining the board. It was part of an effort by News Corp to push deeper into online sports gambling in the United States and Australia.
But the media company has already haemorrhaged money on the investment. In recent annual filings, News Corp said its losses related to Betr totalled $72 million. In March, Mr Reinke and Mr Blunden left the Betr board.
Mr Tripp said the company had turned a “modest profit” and he has set his sights on acquiring rival PointsBet.
In April, the start-up was fined $210,000 by the NSW gaming regulator for advertising of the 100-1 promotion, which breached anti-inducement regulations.
It is also not the first time Mr Tripp and Betr have stared down a massive potential loss on the 100-1 promotion.
During the Melbourne Cup last year, customers piled onto favourite Deauville Legend using the offer, leaving Mr Tripp days to try to lay off tens of millions of dollars in exposure on the outcome.
On that day, roughie Gold Trip won the race. Mr Tripp will be hoping for a similar outcome on Sunday night.