CrownBet brings back BetEasy brand

The Stars Group's CrownBet and William Hill Australia brands will be merged under the ‘BetEasy’ name in the coming weeks, it emerged this (Tuesday) morning.

CrownBet's head of corporate affairs, Daniel Bevan, told iGamingBusiness.com that customers on its platform and players with William Hill Australia accounts will automatically switch over to BetEasy.

Both CrownBet and William Hill have already started communicating with customers about the changes. 

The Stars Group increased its majority stake in CrownBet in March, shortly after CrownBet agreed a deal to buy William Hill’s Australian business. CrownBet finalised its acquisition of William Hill Australia in April. The aggregate price for both transactions was $315m (£240m/€269m).

The BetEasy brand was previously active in Australia under the ownership of Matt Tripp, the current chief executive of CrownBet, who purchased Betezy in 2014 and relaunched the operation under the BetEasy name.

BetEasy then rebranded as CrownBet after its purchase by Crown Resorts.

CrownBet announced last month that it wanted to rebrand as Sportingbet, which was one of Australia's leading brands before being bought out by CrownBet five years ago.

However, Paddy Power Betfair-owned Sportsbet launched legal action in a bid to stop the move, saying in a Federal Court lawsuit that the name would infringe on its own trademark and confuse punters.

Sportsbet secured a temporary court injunction earlier this month to block the rebrand.