Early
History of OZmium Pty Ltd
The
first 7 years
January
2000
OZmium
is registered as a Pty Ltd company with four directors
and equal shareholders who share an involvement in tournament
chess. They are Sean Watharow, Matthew Drummond, Michael
Molnar and Guy West. Work commences on the Smartgambler
website.
May
2000
OZmium is engaged as a consultant to Professional Punter
Publishing, owned by horse racing expert Neil Davis. His
company trades through its Australian thoroughbred horse
racing website Pro-Punter, offering information, advice
and ratings. OZmium's
team, which includes self taught search engine optimisation
expert Michael Molnar, is able to greatly increase traffic
flow to Pro-Punter, redesign the site and help turn it
into one of the premier thoroughbred racing sites in Australia.
January
2001
OZmium
acquires Australian thoroughbred racing website Pro-Punter
via a scrip deal and Neil Davis joins the OZmium board
of directors, taking the number to five.
March
2001
The
Age newspaper's Sunday Life magazine runs an article on
'Beating the Recession' by journalist Everard Hunder.
OZmium's now completed second website Smartgambler is
used as a reference source on gambling information.
November
2001
OZmium's
Director of Racing Services Neil Davis is used for expert
comments in 'The Age Online' during the Melbourne Cup
carnival.
February
2002
OZmium
secures the services of Professor Stephen Clarke of Swinburne
University, Australia's best known sports statistician.
Clarke joins OZmium as AFL football betting analyst.
May
2002
OZmium
introduces secure online credit card facilities onto its
websites after procuring a merchant facility with the
ANZ bank.
August
2002
OZmium
Managing Director Guy West is interviewed on Channel Nine's
'A Current Affair' about poker machines.
September
2002
Professional
tennis bettor and expert Tony Messenger is signed by OZmium
to provide ATP tour information to OZmium clients.
October
2002
OZmium's
Director of Racing Services, Neil Davis quoted in Melbourne's
Age newspaper in an article called 'No sure thing' by
journalist Murray Mottram, attacking 'Track-er Money Generator'
software as 'doomed to fail' and making other gambling
related comments.
November
2002
OZmium
secures the services of Professor Ray Stefani of the University
of California, Long Beach. Stefani is internationally
recognised for his expertise in sports statistics and
mathematical modelling and advises clients on European
soccer and Super 12 Rugby Union.
January
2003
OZmium
secures the services of Dr Alan McCabe of James Cook University,
Qld. McCabe, a researcher in artificial intelligence,
attracted international media interest due to his MAIT
Rugby League tipping program.
July
2003
OZmium
strikes a deal with American sports betting company Baseball
Formula, to provide coverage of US Major League Baseball.
January
2004
OZmium
secures the services of Derek Fearnley, England's leading
golf betting expert, to provide information on Pro Tour
Golf betting.
May
2004
OZmium
contracts IT Support Partners as its in-house technical
services provider and purchases its own dedicated server.
OZmium websites are migrated to the new server.
June
2004
OZmium
Managing Director Guy West is engaged to rewrite a section
of a pamphlet aimed at problem gamblers, distributed by
the organisation 'Gambler's Help' .
June
2004
OZmium
signs Rugby Union expert Stefan Yelas to partner Professor
Ray Stefani in expanding the Super Twelves package to
incorporate all international Rugby Union fixtures.
July
2004
OZmium
secures the services of English Tennis betting guru Nick
Wheatley from NelsonBetAdvisor, to take over from the
departing Tony Messenger.
July
2004
English Golf betting expert Scott Miller is subcontracted
to run the Golf group, taking over from his business partner
Derek Fearnley.
July
2004
OZmium pays a five figure sum in settlement of
a threatened defamation action by a company selling racing
systems, lampooned as rip-offs in an article on the Pro-Punter
website. OZmium subsequently removes any articles from
its websites that could potentially be viewed as defamatory
and curtails its role as a commentator on racing industry
scams.
August
2004
American
NFL is introduced, run by Football Formula, the same handicapping
team covering MLB for OZmium since July 2003.
August
2004
OZmium
signs American sports handicappers Masterbets to provide
American NBA coverage.
August
2004
Gambler's
Help releases G-Pack, containing material provided by
OZmium Managing Director Guy West in its 'Myths and Maths'
section.
December
2004
OZmium secures Australia's most
well known Blackjack player and card counter, Andrew Scott,
to run the Smartgambler Blackjack section.
January
2005
Dr Alan McCabe retires as NRL
handicapper and Professor Stephen Clarke takes over.
July
2005
OZmium welcomes one of Australia's
leading Texas Holdem players, Andrew 'Lucky' LeRoy, to
run the Smartgambler Poker section.
July
2005
Smartgambler Poker expert Andrew
LeRoy is interviewed about the game on Canberra's Louise
Maher drive time radio show, after Joe Hachem's victory
in the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event.
August
2005
The Australian National Library
seeks and is given permission to electronically archive
the Smartgambler website.
September
2005
OZmium Managing Director Guy
West makes a second appearance on Channel Seven's Today
Tonight show, commenting on poker machines and the techniques
used to keep people playing them.
October
2005
OZmium signs former Cricket training centre owner
Damien Oborne as Marketing Manager and Cricket expert.
June
2006
OZmium signs experienced Cricket bettor Blair McFarlane
to take over the new Cricket group when Damien Oborne
is unable to continue and Cricket is offered free of charge
to people opening a new account with selected bookmakers.
The
building of affiliate income streams is identified as
the future prime revenue earning model for OZmium. A strategic
decision is taken to phase out subscription packages for
Tennis, Soccer, Golf, NBA Basketball and NFL Football.
July
2006
OZmium's move away from subscription handicapping
continues with the introduction of free coverage of international
Rugby Union, replacing the previous subscription model.
August
2006
Andrew LeRoy retires as content provider for the Smartgambler
Poker section.
February
2007
CardAcademy.com takes over content provision for the
Smartgambler Poker section. The CardAcademy team includes
leading Australian Poker identities such as 1995 World
Poker Champion Joe Hachem.
March
2007
OZmium decides to drop subscription coverage of Australian
NRL and American MLB at the end of the 2007 seasons, reducing
subscription services in 2008 to just AFL Football and
Australian horse racing, with free coverage of Rugby Union
and Cricket.
April
2007
OZmium Blackjack expert Andrew Scott becomes Gambling
Correspondent for well known Australian news and current
affairs analysis website, Crikey.com.au. Scott's articles
and reports on various gambling related matters begin
appearing on Smartgambler.
May
2007
Former OZmium Tennis handicapper Tony Messenger returns
to offer a free Tennis betting group.
June
2007
Income generated by OZmium during the financial year
ending 30-6-2007 is the highest achieved
to date. Income has exceeded the previous year on every
occasion
since the company was founded in January, 2000.
Gradual restructuring down to just two directors from
as many as five in its early years has also reduced outgoings,
as has ongoing capital investment in IT solutions.
August
2007
A strategic decision is taken to turn OZmium's core
business of horse racing handicapping into a free service.
This almost completes OZmium's departure from the handicapping
industry, with AFL football the only remaining subscription
tipping service, due to demand from the regular members.
TODAY
OZmium Pty Ltd currently has two main areas of revenue,
affiliate income from a leading Australian corporate bookmaker
and advertising income from its four websites. There is
also a minor affiliate deal with an Australian horse racing
data company. OZmium no longer has any involvement in
the handicapping industry. The company remains privately
owned and pays dividends on an annual basis.
Anyone
interested in acquiring any of OZmium's high quality websites
with proven SEO value, or its popular forums, should use
the contact link on the menu.
