Here’s your chance to be an online bookmaker! Australia’s IAS (International All Sports) is up for sale and the well know betting icon is yet to seal any hand over deals.
Mark Read’s IAS Board have looked at expressions of interest from rival companies including Sportsbet and Centrebet which has caused some big movements in the share price.
Early this year Centrebet made a hostile bid of near 22 Million dollars for a 90% part of IAS at 33 cents per share. At the time this seemed to me to be a generous offer considering that the shares were only worth 16 cents and increasing losses gave IAS a bleak outlook. The offer was officially rejected by IAS along with Centrebet’s other offer of 28 cents for a 50% slice of the company. The IAS directors stated that the offer significantly undervalues the shares of IAS but would continue to look at interests from other companies.
With this interest the Darwin based bookmaker saw the share price rise. Another rival company Sportsbet in late February and early March bought a little over 12.3% of IAS at this raised price of an average of 35 cents per share. This lead to Centrebet announcing that they are out of the hunt and wouldn’t make any counter offers. Matthew Tripp owner of Sportsbet commented about the acquisition “The company had bought the stake to have an influence on IAS’s future”.
That’s exactly what happened, around the same time IAS announced its half year results which gave a much brighter picture and the shares topped a high of 42 cents. Currently IAS shares stand at 35 cents and are showing to be much more stable.
IAS now has around 40,000 customers on both it’s IASbet and Canbet sites and turned over $524 million last financial year. They continue to stay very competitive with other Australian bookmakers with aggressive incentives to new players. Currently IAS give new customers a $100 free bet just for making $50 worth of bets on their websites.
Check out both IAS’s sites below
IASbet.com.au
Canbet.com.au
More information on the IAS sale checkout their corporate section here
Canbet was established in 1995 and licensed both in the Northern Territory and the UK. They are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and turn over around a massive 1.2 billion dollars a year.
In my opinion Canbet would be the best place to go for horse racing bets. They cover all race meets in Australia and around Asia including Singapore and Hong Kong.
They are known for their excellent racing promos.
They have 25% cash rebate on losses for each month. This is a first for any Australian bookmaker and a welcome one. For example if you lose $100 on race bets during a month you get a $25 return!- Canbet also encourage horse owners and trainers to bet on their own horses in return giving them an extra 10% on all winnings!
- Another horse racing deal they have is call “protest payout”. What happeneds is if your horse wins the race and a protest is called and the horse is then relegated from first place the win still stands!Its deals like this that keep people going back to Canbet.
They have also made their mark in the bookie industry with a superior support team including a live chat facility, telephone support and super quick email responses.
Canbet cover all Australian and International sports events ranging from the not so known sports like Snooker and Yachting to the high profile sports like the AFL and English Premier League. You would be amazed how interesting Snooker can be to watch once you have some money on it!
Canbet’s sign up bonus is one to take advantage of.Use the promo code FREEBET when signing up and make a deposit of $50 or more and a $100 free bet will be awarded. I checked out the conditions on this offer and found that $50 worth of bets must be made before the free bet is given. Also the free bet winnings must be turned over twice before a withdrawal can be made. As I said in my Centrebet Review earlier, it means if you win $50 from the free bet you must make another $100 worth of bets before you can withdraw any money into your bank account. This is pretty usual for signup bonuses with all Australian online bookies. An easy way to get around both of these conditions is make the bets on markets with really short odds that are almost sure to win and then you will be able to withdraw at any time after that point.
With all the promos Canbet has on offer not only on sign up but throughout the year and the support that is a click away I recommend Canbet. I haven’t had any issues with their services and find their odds among the best.
I gave them a 5 out of 5
For more info on Canbet’s offers or to signup checkout the website here.
