News Corp quietly sold its shares in Betr, the wagering start-up run by wealthy bookmaker Matthew Tripp, just four months after it launched despite injecting more than $70 million into the company.on Thursday he was grateful for News Corp’s “initial and ongoing support”, but said the publishing and broadcast giant was no longer an investor.
Betr launched last October after more than four years of on-and-off discussions between Mr Tripp and News Corp Australia. It was unrelated to a decision by News Corp chairman and Fox Corp chief executive Lachlan Murdoch, to explore the betting market in the United States. Gambling insiders took comments by News Corp’s chief financial officer Susan Panuccio in February – that she did not expect the multimillion-dollar equity loss caused by Betr to be “the run rate going forward” – as a sign of its view on the start-up. The industry has speculated since then that News Corp had walked away from the business.
The structure changed after Tekkorp, part of the consortium that launched Betr almost one year ago, walked away from the start-up two months after the launch. According to a Betr source, Tekkorp “was not allowed to remain in the consortium after being unable to fund their launch obligations”.. When it was unable to secure funding, Betr looked at other options – new investors and the prospect of a sale.