Why Melbourne boss has 2.5 million extra reasons to cheer for Storm

3 days ago 4

Melbourne part-owner and chairman Matt Tripp has 2.5 million extra reasons for wanting his Storm to defeat Brisbane in the NRL grand final on Sunday night.

That’s the amount of money Tripp’s betting company, Betr, risks paying out to customers if the Broncos win at Accor Stadium and their star fullback, Reece Walsh, collects the Clive Churchill Medal as man of the match.

New customers have snapped up the $4 being offered for the Broncos to win, as well as the $6 on offer for livewire Walsh to be the best player on the ground. A Broncos win will cost Tripp’s company $2 million. If Walsh wins the Clive Churchill, it will cost another $500,000.

Tripp said he had kept his beloved Storm short in the market all year, and the late flurry of money for the Broncos at decent odds has left him with a hefty liability.

“Financially we’re cheering for the Storm,” Tripp said. “We’ll be close to $2 million better off if Melbourne do win. For most of the year they’ve been around $3.

“The special offer to new customers for Brisbane has been the catalyst for causing the $2 million delta.”

Tyran Wishart and Harry Grant celebrate their preliminary final win over the Sharks.

Tripp said same-game multi bets had hurt most of the betting agencies this year, including in the Broncos-Raiders qualifying final, which cost the bookies more than $50 million collectively.

“The longer that game went, everyone’s same-game multis were getting up, and punters made a fortune out of it,” Tripp said. “That game cost the industry as a whole north of $50 million.”

Sportsbet has Melbourne at $1.74 and Brisbane $2.10 to win the decider, while TAB has the teams at $1.70 and $2.15 respectively.

Apart from being an investor in the Storm, Tripp is regarded as Australia’s online gambling pioneer, building Sportsbet into a betting behemoth, before he launched and sold BetEasy.

One reason for the NRL wanting to play games in Las Vegas was to try to tap into the giant US sports betting market, but Tripp, whose Storm will feature in the season opener in 2026, said the Americans were yet to bet on rugby league.

“The NRL should embrace Vegas for what it is, which is a marketing tool that launches the season in a great way: it’s a bucket-list event for NRL fans, it kicks the hell out of the AFL in the interim – nobody talks about the AFL for a month – even though they don’t see any direct benefit from wagering, it’s been a great coup,” Tripp said.

Walsh’s popularity shows no signs of abating, with the Broncos fullback receiving the loudest cheer at Thursday’s fan day at Circular Quay.

ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys dubbed Walsh the “Justin Bieber of rugby league” before the 2023 grand final, and this week said of his meteoric rise in popularity: “He continues to amaze me with his charisma and presence, especially with the younger demographic – the TikTok generation love him. You only get these guys once in a generation.”

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