Following a mention in the Sun newspaper printed edition in the UK on the 14th Feb 24 about our new brand easyBet.net, here is the full statement by easyGroup

A spokesperson for easyGroup said:

easyGroup, the creator and owner of the easy family of brands that includes easyJet, easyHotel and many others, owns more than 1,200 trademarks worldwide. A number which is growing all the time. We have a policy of preventing unauthorised use of the easy brand by what we call brand thieves in order to protect the consumer from being confused that the brand thieves are actually part of the easy family.

Some of the Country’s most senior judges recently confirmed that a business, such as easyGroup, which is focussed on brand licensing has its business undermined by use of too similar brands. For example we have recently successfully stopped a brand thief running an online casino from the off shore location of Curaçao using the website name www.easyBet.com. Many UK customers using that website would have believed they were dealing with a member of our family when they were not. That case continues until we recover the domain.

easyBet is sub-brand in that it rhymes with easyJet and is only one letter apart in terms of spelling, or by typing on a keyboard or phone. Sub brands which are very close to easyJet are a perennial area of concern for us, and one for which we monitor and look to protect against brand thieves confusing the public. Usually, brand thieves using a sub brand often means there might be a profitable opportunity in that space although we can’t know in advance which sub-brand is going to become a profitable business. Like with any new business, launching a new brand takes money and time, and it may or may not become profitable. That is the essence of the entrepreneurial nature of the easy family of brands. The best way for easyGroup to protect the consumers against confusion in the marketplace, or in plain English stopping a well-meaning customer searching for easyJet.com ending up on easyBet.com and placing a bet in Curaçao , is to register and use all these valuable trademark rights within the easy family of marks and under our brand controls to deliver quality and service.

In the case of our brand easyBet.net, we are in the early stages of considering a partnership with a technology company to provide an online sports betting exchange platform. The partnership will enable sports fans to back their favourite sports team or sports personality, matching with other customers who provide the other side of the bet. We believe that our technology will offer fairer odds to people who otherwise would have placed the bet with a conventional bookmaker anyway. At this stage we are not planning to offer any other fixed odds games. (i.e. no casino). The partnership may or may not happen, and if it does, we will let you know. If it does, easyGroup will make a very small commission for hosting the platform. easyGroup donates the majority of its profits to the UK registered charity, The Stelios Philanthropic Foundation www.stelios.foundation, which supports a diverse range of charitable activities.