Alan Eskander

Alan Eskander (born 1975) is an Australian entrepreneur and licensed bookmaker who together with his father, Michael Eskander, founded the Australian bookmaking company Betstar in 2007. Eskander lives in Melbourne, though travels to the Northern Territory (of Australia) for business.

Personal life Eskander was exposed at an early age to the life of bookmaking through his father's business activities. Eskander's father, Michael, immigrated to Australia from Egypt in 1966, earning his bookmaking licence in 1984, and subsequently going on to become a prominent name in the Australian bookmaking industry.

Eskander spent much of his childhood at the race track and betting ring. Talking about early life as a bookmaker's son, and of the nature of the industry in general, Eskander said: “You can’t get too excited when you have really big days and similarly you try not to get too upset when you have losing days but obviously anything outside the norm does impact your mood. And so yeah, there were some times when we had plans to go out for dinner on a Saturday night and Dad would come home and go, ‘listen guys, [we’ll] just stay at home, it’s been a rough day.”

After working for some years with his father, and with his Metropolitan bookmaking license behind him, Eskander began operating on his own as a bookmaker in Victoria at country race meetings. “I was trading as a sole proprietor under my own name, Dad was trading under his name and we paralleled and it was fine.” recalls Eskander.

In 2009, Betstar was named as a BRW Fast 100 company for 2009. During Eskander's acceptance of the award, he reflected on the success of Betstar to date as being a result of “good old fashioned service”. For this reason, Betstar tends to be patriotic in its advertising without being over the top, promoting the fact that profits stay in Australia rather than get siphoned off overseas.

Eskander is often a guest on 3AW's Sports Today as well as his opinions represented on their website. He has featured on other radio stations, including the Bet Stars and Stripes show which runs on SEN's 'All Night Appetite' and has featured on an ABC report into NRL betting.