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30 March 2006
Betfair Bid To Create New
Starting Price For UK Horseracing
Ed
Wray one of the founders of Betfair
startled the Global
Betting & Gaming
Consultants annual
conference yesterday by announcing that Betfair would like
to become a part of the starting price mechanism for British
horseracing.
In a forceful speech Wray
said, "The industry needed a starting price system that is
representative of the whole market. Exchanges are a big part
of that market so we (Betfair) need to be a part of it, as
modern punters will not accept a new solution that does not
represent the whole betting market."
Wray proposed that the
exchanges become the wholesalers of the starting price;
bookmakers would take those prices and add their own margin
to them.
The idea did not meet with
much favour from traditional bookmakers.
David Brown from
William
Hill said, "The
market on course is much stronger than on the betting
exchanges where some horses prices can moved for
£50."
Jim Donnelly from the
Press Association who along with SIS formulates the starting
price said that at Towcester Racecourse recently a bookmaker
took £7,000 on one horse and the next betting show saw
the horse drift.
Looking to the future Wray
said that a young persons first bet today was unlikely to be
a horse racing bet and more likely to be a Poker
or Casino
bet on the internet which inevitably meant that horse racing
was likely to lose market share going forward.
Clive Hawkswood from the
Remote
Gambling Association
said that twenty five percent of racings income from the
horse race levy now came from remote gambling but off shore
bookmakers continued to pay nothing toward British racing.
In some respects this income could be at risk for horse
racing were those operators to migrate off shore.
The Horserace Betting Levy
was cited by Lord Donoughue of the Future Funding Group and
Tom Kelly from the Association
of British Bookmakers
as the only alternative for the future funding of the sport
with both urging the BHB and Jockey Club to adopt the
governments plan to modernise as quickly as
possible.
Mark Elliott the new CEO
of Arena Leisure plc said that following the introduction of
Polytrack the all weather racing surface Arena’s all
weather tracks were ready to provide continuous evening
racing to betting shops throughout the year when the law
allows in January 2007.
On the privatisation of
the Tote Mark Elliott who comes from a greyhound racing
background said he would prefer horse race tracks to run
their own Pari Mutual betting. The current system provided
insufficient reward for racecourses.
Simon Holliday from GBGC
said that contrary to popular belief British horseracing was
in good health. In terms of betting handle it was second
only to Japan and second only to Ireland in growth this last
eight years.
He said that UK racing had
the third best growth in the past decade, it provided the
punter with the best value, number of horses in training is
at an all time high, it is the second best attended sport
after soccer, and Ascots new grandstand is likely to create
the worlds best racecourse.
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