PlayUp announced that all its players will be transferred to NextBet which eventually is going to be the company’s main brand after the rebranding.
Although the CrossBet brand will be completely scrapped, the PlayUp brand will still exist for a very limited time. As a transition, the PlayUp website will be unavailable for a short time on 28 February before the migration to NextBet is completed.
The decision came after the company’s shareholders gave their consent to the $18.6 million sale to CrossBet at the end of last year, the transaction which was carried on despite some of the investors being against it.
Renaming PlayUp hasn’t solved the company’s legal problems, nor the legal problems of its CEO, Daniel Simic.
The legal battle, heated till now, with the former CEO of the US arm, Laila Mintas, is still going on; however, only her counterclaims are being adjudicated at the moment. The whole thing exploded when PlayUp blamed her for the deal with FTX for $450M in 2021 getting delayed due to her actions. In July 2025, the court ordered CEO Daniel Simic’s devices to be inspected by a technical expert, thus adding to the complexity of the case.
On top of this dispute, PlayUp is also facing accusations that it has not yet settled its law firm bills. The law firm Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer has just secured a court judgment for the recovery of $330,000 in unpaid fees, but it is still to be determined if PlayUp has sufficient assets to cover that amount.
CEO Daniel Simic presumably contacted an M&A specialist to help him structure deals that limit the exposure to risk, nevertheless, the company’s financial and legal issues are still unresolved.
When NextBet appeared in the market, it added to the confusion even more. The platform launched in September 2025 as a new player in the Australian betting market with the concept of eventually overtaking smaller operators.
NextBet is a CrossBet brand that has been renamed, according to public records, and is owned by a different CrossBet entity whose shareholders include members of the Cross family.
Scott Cross and Harley Dalton, also associated with Altor Capital, are the company directors. Such an arrangement raises the question of who really controls NextBet, even as PlayUp’s customers have migrated to its platform.
