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Sports betting agencies fight for naming rights


 

 

Sportsbetting also questioned why Sportsbet had launched legal action
against it now after two decades. Pat Scala/Racing Photos via Getty Images

*	EXCLUSIVE


Jared Lynch <https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/Jared+Lynch> 


Reporter

@jaredm_lynch <http://twitter.com/jaredm_lynch> 



*	4:54PM June 26, 2020
*
<https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/sports-betting-agencies
-fight-for-naming-rights/news-story/ce425d63dd69b32dce5690ae4f4b39ec#coral>
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Wagering minnow Sportsbetting.com.au has countered betting giant Sportsbet's
claim it had infringed its trademark, saying it had registered its domain
six years earlier.

In documents filed with the Federal Court on Thursday, Sportsbetting argued
that if its brand has been impinged, Sportsbet's trademark should be struck
out in Australia.

The counter claim comes after Sportsbet, owned by Irish group Flutter
Entertainment, sued Melbourne-based Sportsbetting for trademark infringement
- despite the two outfits operating alongside one another for almost two
decades.

Sportsbet is the market leader in the $4bn Australian online betting
industry with a share of about 25 per cent, which is set to grow to almost
40 per cent as it subsumes rival BetEasy in a $US12bn merger between Flutter
Entertainment and BetEasy's owner The Stars Group.

Sportsbetting says it has been operating a sports-betting business under the
Sportsbetting.com.au and the Sportsbetting.aust.com trademarks continuously
since 1998 - long before Sportsbet filed an application for its trademark in
August 2004.

"In 1998, Sportsbetting's predecessor, Hamish Davidson, founded a
sports-betting business named Davidson Sports Betting and immediately
started using the domain name www.ozemail.com.au/-sportbet and the email
address sportbet at ozemail.com.au to promote his sports-betting services,"
Sportsbetting says in court documents.

"On 29 September 1998, Mr Davidson registered the domain name
www.sportsbetting.aust.com and commenced using that domain name to promote
his sports-betting services.

"If the court has found that the Sportsbetting.com.au mark is substantially
identical to the Sportsbet trademarks, then the court should also find that
the Sportsbet trademarks are substantially identical to the Sportsbetting
trademarks such that Sportsbet is not the owner of the Sportsbet
trademarks."

Tabcorp watching from the sideline

Watching on the sidelines will be Australian-listed betting giant Tabcorp,
which itself owns a range of domains that contain the words sports and
betting, which Sportsbet claims it has a trademark to in Australia.

Sportsbetting highlighted the use of Tabcorp's use of the TAB Sportsbet mark
until at least 2014, as well as the use of the Sportingbet trademark by
Sportingbet Australia up until at least 2016 and the continued use of the
Sportsbetting.com.au mark by Sportsbetting.

Sportsbetting also questioned why Sportsbet had launched legal action
against it now after two decades.

"Throughout the approximately 20 years that (Sportsbetting) and its
predecessors have been using the Sportsbetting.com.au mark in Australia,
Sportsbet and its predecessors did not at any time raise with it any
objection to such use or suggest to it that such use constituted an
infringement of any trade mark or other rights of Sportsbet until the letter
from Sportsbet's lawyers to it dated 24 April 2020."


Jared Lynch <https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/Jared+Lynch> 


 

Reporter

 

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