Marleys House of Sport owner, Marley John Wynter, denies syndicate is a Ponzi scheme

The Tasmanian businessman behind an online sports betting syndicate that has reportedly raked in more than $32m in profits is being investigated by police over allegations of fraud. DETAILS >

Marley Wynter, owner of Marleys House of Sport.

The Tasmanian businessman behind an online sports betting syndicate that has reportedly raked in more than $32m in profits is being investigated by police over allegations of fraud.

But a spokesman for Marleys House of Sport (MHS) owner Marley John Wynter, strictly denied the claims, describing them as a “witch hunt”.

MHS is being alleged by its members to be holding out on paying back more than $3m to its frustrated clients.

On January 23 this year, Mr Wynter in an email announced MHS would close its doors “for good”, but that it would pay its clients their initial deposits, plus five per cent.

The Mercury understands that some clients have been trying, unsuccessfully, to withdraw funds from the platform since September 2022.

Poker Media Australia, who first reported the claims, wrote that Mr Wynter had said his bank accounts had been frozen, hindering the payment of the funds to MHS clients.

Marley Wynter, owner of Marleys House of Sport.

They also reported Mr Wynter had previously denied MHS was a scam.

And while some clients have reportedly received their deposits – many more are claiming they are yet to see a cent, two months on from its closure.

Social media pages for MHS including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch appear to have had their content wiped or hidden, and were unable to be viewed.

ASIC records show both MHS and a second business, Marleys House of Investment, operate out of a Bathurst St, Launceston address.

The Mercury understands Mr Wynter also has links to Queensland.

For IT engineer and founder of Australian Poker Schedule Craig Abernethy, red flags started waving when he began questioning MHS’s business model in early 2022.

“My first question to (clients) was ‘okay, but where is your money?’, and they said it’s there (on the account balance shown on the site)’, and I said, ‘no, where is the money?’, Mr Abernethy said.

Mr Abernethy created the Facebook group ‘Marleys House of Sport (formally Don’t F*** With Poker Players)’ in an effort to highlight his concerns about the syndicate.

“I said to them you invested $5k and now you’ve got $20k, how did he do that? And they said ‘he bets on horses and stuff’.”

“I emailed Marley about these concerns, and listed them all out, and his response was ‘I’m not explaining anything to you because you’re not a member’,” he said.

Marley Wynter’s business Marleys House of Sport is registered to a Launceston address.

Mr Abernethy’s page gained traction in January this year, jumping from just 35 members to 250 – as concerns over the difficulty of withdrawing funds continued to grow.

The page now has more than 360 members, and Mr Abernethy says he has compiled a database of around 500 MHS clients based across the country.

Mr Abernethy said by his calculations, the amount of money given to Mr Wynter was more than $3m.

But after adding up the account balances supplied by 50 clients through the Facebook page, he claimed to find a total profit of around $32m – figures Mr Abernethy said he did not believe were possible to achieve through bookmakers.

“That’s just me adding up the screen shots (of account balances) from people saying, I have $450k, I have $75k … I added them all up,” he said.

“The group more or less became a resource to try and get all of this information out.”

Another red flag, Mr Abernethy said, was when Mr Wynter allegedly asked members to “top up” and “upgrade” their memberships and asked for funds so he could purchase an $80k server.

At one point, the MHS website also displayed the logo for the charity Kids With Cancer, with Mr Wynter claiming to have made a $50k donation to the organisation.

Executive Director Peter Bodman told The Mercury that no funds had ever been donated by Mr Wynter.

“This came to our attention and our CEO wrote to the man and said remove our logo from the website, which was done,” Mr Bodman said.

The website, which once displayed information about the syndicate now displays a message, similar to that of the email sent to clients informing them of the closure.

Marley Wynter has previously denied the claims.

“Dear clients and hopeful clients, we inform you with heavy hearts that Marleys House of Sport is now closed for good,” the statement read.

“All remaining client account balances are in the process of being paid out. All initial client deposits will be paid out first and foremost for those not already in profit.”

A Tasmania Police spokeswoman said reports had been made through Report Cyber, and referred The Mercury to Queensland Police.

A Queensland Police spokeswoman said cybercrime reports in relation to “an alleged fraudulent betting investment scheme” involving victims in Queensland had been made.

“For privacy reasons and as the matter is under investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further,” the spokeswoman said.

Mr Abernethy said he was relieved an investigation was underway, having first reported MHS to Scamwatch in May 2022.

Calls to Mr Wynter’s lawyer, Noosa based BJH Law Principal Solicitor Bradford Hill were unreturned.

Speaking to the Mercury, Mr Wynter would not deny the claims but referred any questions to his lawyer.

Andrew Dyce, who claimed to be managing Mr Wynter and assisting him through his legal case, strictly denied the claims, which he described as a “witch hunt”.

“Marley’s only intention is to pay everyone back, but he can’t because he can’t access his money, that is the dog honest truth,” Mr Dyce said.

He added that he had personally seen the “millions” in Mr Wynter’s accounts, which he said had been frozen since September 2022.

Mr Dyce said they were in the process of suing both Poker Media Australia and 2GB – who also ran a radio program airing the claims this week.

Originally published as Marleys House of Sport owner, Marley John Wynter, denies syndicate is a Ponzi scheme