Liquidator to be appointed to Michael Pryde’s Simply The Bets firm which lost elite investors millions

Simply The Bets boss Michael Pryde offered to drive to the home of one of his elite investors and repay him $50,000 cash. The investor is still waiting. As are more claiming they’re owed millions.

Professional punter Michael Pryde last week offered to drive to the home of one of his investors and repay him $50,000 he owed in cash. But he didn’t turn up.

Pryde, 31 is mired in civil legal action and the Supreme Court was told on Monday that a liquidator is likely to be appointed to his Simply The Bets company, which was accepting investors’ money as late as two weeks ago, despite court orders freezing his finances, The Daily Telegraph has been told.

He is not facing any criminal proceedings.

While investors, mainly from Sydney’s eastern suburbs, who have poured millions into STB have been waiting for their “guaranteed” betting returns to be paid out, Pryde confirmed that he has recently paid his brother $289,493 and his millionaire father $118,050.

The former St Josephs Hunters Hill student who used his old school network to recruit investors, said those payments had nothing to do with the betting company but was money he owned to his family.

Michael Pryde appearing on sports podcast About Even, left, and in the Birdcage at the Melbourne Cup, right. Pictures: Supplied

“I am in financial debt to my father and brother,” he said on Monday.

“My father and brother are not, in any way, involved in STB.”

There is no suggestion that his family are involved in the alleged betting scheme, which the Supreme Court has been told has left at least two investors out of pocket for $1,357,304 million.

The District Court has ordered Pryde to pay $74,542 to a third investor in a separate case.

The Supreme Court was told on Monday that an application will be made to have Bruce Gleeson of Jones Partners appointed to STB on behalf of the two investors. Jones Partners are the same firm who clawed back millions for investors dudded by con-woman Melissa Caddick’s financial Ponzi scheme.

Pryde’s company was ordered to pay legal costs after he failed to block the application.

Michael Pryde, 31, used his old school network from exclusive St Joseph’s College Hunters Hill to recruit clients to invest in his system he called Simply the Bets

Meanwhile, more investors in his betting system have come forward to claim they are also owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“Last week he texted me, asked my address and he offered to drive around with the cash,” an investor who claims to be owed $55,000 he invested in November 2022 told The Daily Telegraph on Monday.

When neither Pryde nor the money arrived, the man said Pryde told him he would transfer it into his bank account. He said that did not arrive either.

Michael Pryde registered his business Simply The Bets was based at the McLaren Apartments in North Sydney – but the apartment does not exist.

The two investors who have won freezing orders on Pryde’s finances in the Supreme Court to protect the money they claim they are owed, have stated in affidavits filed with the court that Pryde had also reneged on a number of promises to repay their money last year. He gave reasons including “attending to an acute private situation”, reporting and taxation regulations, Austrac assessments and “managing a particularly delicate situation involving a client”.

The court has been told the money had not yet been paid.

Another investor said her family was asked to pay through PayPal when they put in $20,000 to STB on January 30 this year, instead of through a bank account.

The major banks and betting agencies have all been served with the freezing orders stopping Pryde from operating his accounts. PayPal has not been served.

Lawyer Michael Hayter said the court freezing orders block Pryde from dealing with any assets, state he must give the court a list of his assets and liabilities and detail what he has done with his clients’ money.

“He has not done so and it has been mentioned a number of times in court that he in breach of the court orders,” Mr Hayter, of Swaab Attorneys’ who acts for the two major investors said.