Business of Media
Betr’s 100-to-1 odds promotion forces it to hedge bets with Tabcorp
News Corp-backed bookmaker Betr has been forced to lay bets with rival Tabcorp on the Melbourne Cup favourite to hedge against massive potential losses that might arise from the start-up’s aggressive promotion offering 100-to-1 odds on all runners, report Nine Publishing’s Mark Di Stefano and Anthony Macdonald.
Betr’s chief executive Matthew Tripp contacted several major firms including Tabcorp and Sportsbet hoping to lay off tens of millions of dollars worth of exposure to the Cup’s short-priced favourite Deauville Legend, according to four people familiar with the calls.
In the first weeks of operation, Tripp’s new firm ran a promotion that offered customers 100-to-1 odds on every runner in the Melbourne Cup, with a maximum bet of $10. Print and digital ads carrying the promotion were plastered in News Corp papers and on the company’s websites.
Sources say the promotion led to tens of thousands of new users, with many using the offer to make a $10 bet on the race’s favourite, to win $1000. The TAB is offering $3.50 for Deauville Legend to win the Cup.
‘Lachlan gets fired the day Rupert dies’: Murdoch biography stokes succession rumors
It’s long been thought that the succession plan for Lachlan Murdoch to take control of Fox Corporation and News Corp was set in stone for when his 91-year-old father, Rupert Murdoch dies, reports The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly.
But a new book is stoking speculation that Murdoch’s oldest son might be ousted in a Succession-style feud with his family, in a move with potentially huge ramifications for Fox News, the TV network that dominates US rightwing politics, according to a new biography of the Anglo-Australian media heir.
The author, Paddy Manning, writes: “A Wall Street analyst who has covered the Murdoch business for decades and is completely au fait with the breakdown in the relationship between the brothers [Lachlan and James Murdoch], volunteers off the record that it would be ‘fair to assume Lachlan gets fired the day Rupert dies’.”
The Successor: The High-Stakes Life of Lachlan Murdoch will be published in the US on 15 November.
Manning is an Australian journalist who has written for outlets including the Guardian. His previous books include biographies of Malcolm Turnbull, the former Australian prime minister, and Nathan Tinkler, a mining entrepreneur.
Can Elon Musk make the math work on owning Twitter? It’s dicey.
Now that Elon Musk has completed his $44 billion deal for Twitter, let’s walk through the math of owning the social media company, reports The New York Times’ Lauren Hirsch.
It’s not just an academic exercise. Musk’s ability to make the numbers work will have a direct impact on the health of a service called the world’s town square, determining what direction he takes the business and the platform. If the financial case is grim, any plans to invest in Twitter may have to take a back seat to simply paying the bills.
The numbers are already daunting. The $44 billion acquisition was the largest leveraged buyout of a technology company in history. To do the deal, Musk, the world’s richest man, loaded about $13 billion in debt on the company, which had not turned a profit for eight of the past 10 years. The deal was inked before the global economy looked to be headed toward a recession as interest rates surged higher. And digital advertising, which makes up 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue, has been falling at social media companies.
Elon Musk considers charging Twitter users $20 a month for verified accounts
Elon Musk is considering charging Twitter users $20 a month or $240 a year for a blue tick on their account, as the world’s richest person prepares an overhaul of the social media platform, report The Guardian’s Dan Milmo and Alex Hern.
The Tesla chief executive is planning changes to Twitter’s Blue subscription service, according to the tech newsletter Platformer, including raising the $4.99 a month fee to $19.99. Users verified by the platform – who carry a blue tick flagging them as an authentic source – would have 90 days to sign up to Blue or lose their check mark.
Musk did not comment directly on the story but tweeted to his more than 110 million followers on Sunday that “the whole verification process is being revamped right now”.
Agencies
FutureBrand Australia launches internship program for regional and rural students
FutureBrand Australia has launched an internship program exclusively for regional and rural students.
The program aims to remove the geographical barriers in front of regional and rural students who are interested in a career in branding or the creative sector but struggle to find support in what is typically a city-based career.
The internship comprises a seven-week paid immersive program spanning brand strategy, design, language, experience and brand management through a hybrid model of in-person and remote delivery.
FutureBrand Australia will also cover travel and accommodation expenses for each intern to help remove some of the financial hurdles that students can experience.
The program’s new intern, Ashleigh Freeman, has started in FutureBrand Australia’s Melbourne office, joining from Federation University, Ballarat where she is studying Advanced Diploma of Graphic Design.
Television
ABC to tackle Liberal Party’s ‘Killing Season’
Labor has now firmly taken control of the country’s reins – but in the week of Jim Chalmers’ first budget, the ABC turned its focus firmly back to the Liberal Party’s decade in power, reports The Australian’s Nick Tabakoff.
Diary can reveal that the ABC has quietly started work on a Coalition version of Sarah Ferguson’s three-part 2015 documentary series, The Killing Season – which brutally charted the Labor disunity that helped to bring down the regimes of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
Your columnist has obtained a copy of letters sent out on behalf of ABC news boss Justin Stevens to Liberal MPs and backroom players about the ambitious “documentary series”.
The letters revealing the plans show no lack of ambition, confidently claiming the series will be the “definitive” version of the Scott Morrison/Malcolm Turnbull/Tony Abbott years.