Sun Bets Reveals Huge Loss

Huge losses have been reported by newcomer to the gambling industry, Sun Bets. The news came after Australian betting and gaming giant TabCorp Holdings posted figures for its financial year, which ended on June 30th. TabCorp manages bookmaking for Sun Bets and has reported a loss of £12.6m, compared to a profit of £103m the previous year.

There were three main factors behind the TabCorp losses. The Australian operator is in the middle of a merger with Tatts and that process has come at a cost of £32.6m. There’s also an ongoing dispute with AUSTRAC and those civil proceedings have amounted to £37.4m. Finally, Sun Bets made an operating loss of £28.8m over the period and had its assets written down by £12.5m. The combined costs of £121m completely wiped out TabCorp post-tax profits of £108m.

Any readers of this column will be aware that Private Eye recently wrote a scathing article about Sun Bets. While some of the criticisms made may have been unfounded, it did point to trouble brewing. TabCorp has already stepped in with a managerial shakeup and the latest financials show that the new bookie has work to do to become a profitable business.

TabCorp CEO David Attenborough said:

“We had hoped for a better start to the business in its first 11 months of operation and with performance below expectations, we are confident that the steps that we have taken to recalibrate Sun Bets’ leadership and operations will deliver an improved performance in the year ahead.”

As a new player in a hugely competitive gambling sector, Sun Bets has had to run some enticing promotions to help with new customer acquisition. Perhaps this has been detrimental to running costs but it’s been good for matched betting. There have been some absolutely brilliant free bet offers and incentives from the bookie to date.

Just this week, it’s been possible to lock-in a profit from Glorious Goodwood betting offers. Simply by placing a bet on the first race, Sun Bets customers were given a free bet in return. It’s the kind of promotion that matched bettors thrive on and similar offers are regularly available. We can only hope that the recent losses don’t reduce the number of matched betting opportunities from Sun Bets.