Tom Waterhouse app to rein in bookies odds

Tom Waterhouse has always had three golden rules for punting: know your pick, know your stake and get the best price.

Tom Waterhouse at his offices in Sydney on Friday Picture: Britta Campion

Tom Waterhouse has always had three golden rules for punting: know your pick, know your stake and get the best price.

With the first two covered in his tip-sharing subscription, it was only time before he plotted a shake-up of the industry he used to dominate.

Once known as the face of the bookmaking game, the now-professional tipster has this week ­secured plans to develop a platform to aggregate bookies from across the country into one app.

In a similar way to a flight or hotel booking, he tells The Weekend Australian the process of finding the best odds should be “the cheapest and the most convenient”.

“Everyone wants the best price but most don’t want to get to the hassle of trying to find it. We cut out that pain point,” he says.

Since opening his own tipping business two years ago, after the collapse of William Hill, the son of racing royalty has built a name for himself for his subscription service “to make better bettors”.

Despite numerous opportunities to link up with various local bookmakers, Waterhouse says he hasn’t wanted to sully his man-of-the-people approach.

“There are plenty of bookmakers and they all want to win but our whole thing is we don’t mind where the punters go, we just want the punters to win,” he says.

The deal with ASX-listed gambling tech developer Betmakers links the two to develop the app, alongside another business-to-business offering, in return for options in the listed company and a share in the revenue generated.

The app is set to launch to ­Waterhouse’s more than 80,000 members within the June quarter.

It coincides with the end of a two-year non-compete period with William Hill after the betting behemoth bought out his original wagering site in 2013, but the deal ended up being a $700m flop.

The giant carved up the brand along with two others and replaced them with its own name brand William Hill — said in one focus group to be sounding like a brand of cigarettes.

Waterhouse was the head of the local unit before its retreat and ultimately took back his eponymous brand, saying he’s more at home working under his own name, even if it means fewer staff.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better time, but I love being back in my own business,” he says.

After a tongue-in-cheek launch ad featuring a miniature pony that garnered more than a million views on YouTube, he says he won’t be keeping a low profile much longer.

The deal to develop the software came after his Waterhouse VC firm bought into Betmakers last year.

In an increasingly crowded market, he says investing in a B2B developer, rather than just being another bookie, was the best way to gain exposure to growth in the industry and protect against any regulatory changes.

“We only focus on gambling but the area we like is regulated market operators with scale to win the marketing wars or business-to-business players that are offering a critical service,” he says.

“A lot of the banks don’t even touch the gambling industry. I love having a gambling focus that so many of the big companies don’t cover or won’t cover.”

While his tips cover only the local racing market at present, Waterhouse hinted that an NBA version could be up and running within six months.