Mark Read is an Australian businessman and former

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795. Range of events Bookma ...

, founder of International All Sports. Read was a leading bookmaker at a time when racing, particularly in Queensland, was beset with corruption, and avoided accepting bets from Queensland races. Read was one of the first bookmakers to sniff out the

Fine Cotton Fine Cotton (29 November 1976 20 February 2009) was a brown Australian Thoroughbred gelding which was at the centre of a substitution scam (also known as a ring-in) which occurred on 18 August 1984, in the Commerce Novice (2nd division) Handic ...

substitution scam. At the height of his success in 1982, Read bought a mansion,

Boomerang, Elizabeth Bay ''Boomerang'' is a heritage-listed private house and garden located at 42 Billyard Avenue in the inner eastern Sydney suburb of Elizabeth Bay, in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The house was designed by ...

, but then retired.

Sportsbet.com.au Sportsbet, is an online gambling company owned by Flutter Entertainment, primarily targeting the Australian market. Sportsbet is licensed as a corporate bookmaker in the Northern Territory under the ''Racing and Betting Act 1993'' (NT). Sportsb ...

acquired International All Sports in 2009.Scott Woodward ''Living & Learning With The World's Biggest Punters'' p.30 "... the acquisition of Mark Read's International All Sports in 2009, Sportsbet are set to hit trading revenues in excess of 2 billion dollars in 2010. Mark Read is a living legend in the bookmaking world and he could have chosen who he wanted to sell his high profile business to.

References

Living people Australian bookmakers Year of birth missing (living people) {{Australia-bio-stub