War for The Roar: The mystery director and a bitter fight for ownership

3 hours ago 3

The future of popular sports website The Roar is up in the air following a year-long battle for its ownership, an alleged $1 sale of assets to a former cosmetic surgery entrepreneur and a temporary shutdown.

With no finances coming in to pay contributors owed for work done as far back as May, and current and former staff still owed unpaid superannuation, the ownership dispute has stymied a rescue deal led by Tom Hall, the Hong Kong-based owner of The Sporting News.

The War for The Roar. Former cosmetic surgery entrepreneur Daniel Corsello, PlayUp’s founder and global CEO Daniel Simic, and Tom Hall of The Sporting News.

The protracted fight for ownership of the sports outlet culminated in The Roar going dark this month after Fan Media repeatedly failed to release funds, three sources with knowledge of the matter and not authorised to speak publicly said.

Ownership of The Roar is highly contested. It consists of a complex network of companies that own the various intellectual property rights and registered trademarks. The website itself was operated “under licence” by Fan Media. The group was purchased by online gambling firm PlayUp in 2021. Though in 2024, Daniel Simic, PlayUp’s founder and global CEO ceased being Fan Media’s sole director, appointing a mysterious figure in his place, Miro Mikrut, a 59-year-old born in Footscray.

Then, in June this year, PlayUp ceased to be a shareholder of the operating company, transferring ownership to a newly registered company named Roar Networks, which lists Mikrut as owner and sole director.

The financial relationship between PlayUP, Mikrut and Fan Media is unknown, though Mikrut is known to be a former associate of PlayUp and Simic, three sources with knowledge of the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

Simic this year sold the company that registered The Roar’s trademarks to Melbourne-based Daniel Corsello, a former cosmetic surgery clinic mogul, financial advisor and board director at Israeli-based advertising and technology firm AdRabbit. Corsello was to facilitate a deal with The Sporting News before relations soured between all parties.

This prompted a fierce legal battle between the two parties which is ongoing. Other tensions include an explosive argument between Corsello and PlayUp’s chief financial officer, Prashant Arora, in the company’s Sydney offices last year.

Founded in 2006 as a rugby-led blog, The Roar has become a mainstay in Australia’s sports scene, covering major sports and drawing a reported two million page views per month. It has just four staff members, led by editor Tony Harper, a former sports editor of The Sun-Herald. The site profits from reader submissions and serves users akin to a sports forum, with heavy discussion in the comments sections of its articles. Harper declined to comment when contacted.

Since its foundation, The Roar has cycled through several owners. It was purchased from its founders and minority owner Network 10 by Australian Radio Network in 2016 for $11.5 million and sold again three years later to AthletesVoice. In 2021, PlayUp purchased both The Roar and AthletesVoice.

In a statement, Hall claimed Mikrut’s Fan Media could no longer operate The Roar, confirming that The Sporting News is engaged in an ongoing legal dispute with the company as it seeks to finalise a deal with Corsello.

“We recognise Dan Corsello as the rightful owner of the IP; we discovered through the process recently that Fan Media actually have no license to operate the Roar any more.”

Mikrut refused to confirm details or respond to questions. He said he was looking to publish a media release next week. While the matter continues, sources close to Fan Media claim to have identified a new investor.

Asked for further details, Hall said he was confused why any investor would inject money into Fan Media “as they don’t actually own anything any more”.

Corsello could not be reached when approached for comment, while when approached for comment, lawyers for Simic responded with a number of legal threats.

The Sporting News claims to have stepped in to take over ad sales to prevent The Roar from going bankrupt.

In early 2024, Corsello was introduced to PlayUp and The Roar on behalf of AdRabbit, who were considering investing in the business. After Simic’s plans to revamp The Roar, introduce an experiences platform ‘Roar+’ and integrate products from PlayUp fell over, he decided to part ways with the loss-making publication, sources with knowledge of the matter say. Corsello was then brought in to audit The Roar’s finances on behalf of The Sporting News.

Simic is alleged to have sold the IP rights to The Roar to Corsello for $1, with plans in place for Corsello to enter into a joint venture with The Sporting News. With Mikrut installed as the sole director of the operating company, the dispute over ownership of the site has become bitterly contested.

Mikrut has almost no online presence, and those associated with The Roar, The Sporting News and PlayUp both currently and previously know little about him. He is reportedly involved in a syndicate owning the former Caulfield Cup-winning thoroughbred Mummify, a property listings platform BuyMyPlace and sponsored the Melbourne Knights soccer club via Croatian drinks company Cedevita in 2013. There are no pictures of Mikrut online.

Hall owns several businesses in Hong Kong and was a close friend of Shane Warne. He was with Warne when the cricketer passed away in Thailand in 2022. He purchased The Sporting News from British sports streamer DAZN in 2020.

In the meantime, The Sporting News claims to have stepped in to take over ad sales to prevent The Roar from going bankrupt.

Since 2021, PlayUp has been plagued by its own set of financial disputes, failed M&A and legal action. Simic was questioned by a Federal Court judge over the company’s finances this year as part of a long-running lawsuit against its former American CEO Laila Mintas.

PlayUp sued Mintas, claiming she was the reason a $600 million takeover by Crypto firm FTX fell over in 2021. FTX’s owner, Sam Bankman-Fried is in jail on fraud charges. The claims against Mintas were dismissed.

PlayUp was hit with a $600,000 fine in NSW after an investigation found 33 illegal gambling ads housed on its website.

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