Sport is made for betting

The time of the most stubborn and incompetent racing administrator in the world is coming to an end. Defiantly, he still refuses to believe that a court could possibly rule against him and his policies which were proven in court to be discriminatory, and thus illegal. NSW Racing is being crippled by the amount of ridiculous legal fees this bozo and his board are wasting on cases they simply cannot win. Contrast this rhetoric as dictated to TABCorp and Racing NSW's mouthpiece, the Daily Telegraph, with this analysis from Bill Saunders , an industry analyst who actually understands the principles of law and negotiation. The Punters' Show on Racenet had an excellent interview with Andrew Twaits on the subject. Finally the industry that V'Landys supposedly lives and breathes for has had enough, a vote of 'no confidence' in V'Landys and the Racing NSW board is set to be put forward at next week's board meeting . Leading NSW trainer Gai Waterhouse said "It ...

Hyprocritical muppet. I'll leave it at that. Productivity Commission Gambling Report Represents Community View from Racing NSW CEO Peter V'Landys: "The Productivity Commission allowed presentations from a myriad of wagering operators but at no time sought to provide Racing NSW with the opportunity to make a presentation on behalf of its 50,000 participants." V'Landys fails to point out that Racing NSW did in fact make a submission, which was mostly ignored, much to his chagrin. In terms of poetic justice he might like to reflect on the very limited consultation process that Racing NSW engaged in when formulating its race fields strategy. Submissions were not considered from any wagering operator other than TabCorp and the one provided by Betfair was ignored. ... Racing NSW is furious that any party would want to dictate what it should charge for its racing, saying: "The two most ridiculous recommendations are that an independent organisation set the price of ...

So Racing NSW was successful with the Federal Court in their demands to see some documents from Betfair, making it sound like Betfair had something to hide. Well, being a private company without the need to publish their accounts each year (which they do anyway), you could understand why they'd be reluctant to do so. After all, there are dozens of rival firms out there who would love to find out how it all worked so well. But Racing NSW's victory was rather hollow. Clutching at Straws What Racing NSW forgot to explain in its Bulletin, was that the discovery claim it was appealing against was one which asked for some 60,000 documents from Betfair, including material prepared well before its Race Fields legislation went to Parliament. Justice Perram disallowed that request on the basis that he could not see how such an onerous burden should be imposed on Betfair. The final request allowed by the Full Federal Court amounted to some 100 documents. The order was only permitted becau...

Not much time to update the blog at the moment with continuing BT and house move issues, plus I was in Cardiff for the opening day of the Ashes with the Fanatics. It should be a great series to trade, with hopefully the right result at the end. Meanswhile back in Australia, Racing NSW are still convinced they can win the unwinnable court case. Bill Saunders from the Virtual Formguide details how badly deluded they are in NSW racing circles... The Dogs want their bone The AJC should blame Tabcorp Meanwhile the Australian Racing Board chairman shows who butters his bread by showing how far out of touch he is with reality too Bentley hits back at Gai's call

Nothing new here, just more of the same acts of desperation from Peter V'landys and TABCorp. Copyright is wrong strategy - Bill Saunders Betfair, Racing NSW still at loggerheads Betfair punts on revenue in NSW racing row When I was teaching people how to use Betfair more effectively, sometimes you would just have to throw your hands up in despair when people couldn't work out for themselves that their strategy was completely flawed or they wouldn't learn from their mistakes. I once had a guy who thought it was a great idea to lay a horse at about 30, then if it looked like winning, back it back at 3. He couldn't work out why he'd lost about £50k.... In business, if you put all your eggs in one basket, ignore all the advice from educated people in the field and piss ridiculous amounts of money up the wall, you should be held accountable for it. But as per usual in a government-appointed racing body, it won't happen...

These guys do a pretty good job already of shooting themselves in the foot, but Patrick Smith of the Australian manages to give them more of the lambasting they deserve for their pig-headed ignorance of how the modern world works. If idiots like this lot ran the world since time began, we'd still be living in huts thinking the world was flat. NSW racing fights for life Here's the deal Bob Bentley - don't blame the corporate bookmakers and Betfair for the damage left behind by the incompetence and arrogance of NSW racing administrators. The money they've pissed up the wall on legal fees fighting forlorn cases would fund at least two months of city racing. Every other state is doing just fine, but NSW has created the mess it's in, nobody else... Bill Saunders also weighs in with his views Something doesn't quite add up When publicly-elected officials go on ego-stroking campaigns wasting money with little regard for the consequences, they really should be hung out ...

Racing NSW supremo, or should I say, head muppet, Peter V'Landys, has banked his reputation and the future of the NSW racing industry on winning the race fields legislation against Betfair and corporate bookmakers in Australia. The issue - paying for the right to use Racing NSW information to take bets on NSW racing. Nobody is disputing the fact that the body that runs the show deserves to be paid by companies making money from it. The issue is how much and what is fair. Australia has two main states of racing - Victoria and New South Wales. NSW might have a bigger population but their racing isn't on a par with Victoria. When Takeover Target won last weekend on Doncaster Handicap day, it was a feat worthy of being cheered on by 40,000 people at least. They didn't even get 20 thousand on Sydney's second or third biggest raceday of the year - pathetic. Racing Victoria sets the standard in Australia - better prizemoney, bigger fields, better crowds, racing not as dominate...

Faced with a court case about anti-competitive policy, Racing NSW, led by head muppet Peter V'Landys, is now trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes by saying the 1.5% charge on turnover for NSW racefields will apply to all operators, including TABCorp, not just the bookies and Betfair. TABCorp already pay three times that as part of their distribution, there is no way that will stick. SMH article - Tabcorp bristles at impost It's just a blatant attempt to mislead the court into thinking the fee isn't discriminatory. No wonder NSW racing is struggling when they piss money up against walls by employing fools with massive egos like V'Landys and Richard Freedman. Here's Bill Saunders' view on the case as a reminder.

Rather puzzling response from RacingNSW in the legal case against Betfair re race fields levy and turnover tax. Having been served with a writ over two months ago, they have yet to prepare a defence, and the NSW Federal Court has ordered them to get a move on! Read Bill Saunders' latest article about Racing NSW wasting more punters' money in court. Will they ever learn?

Bill Saunders of the Virtual Formguide with a brilliant article disecting the latest hysteria from TABCorp in the light of their first battle with competition since they began 40 yrs ago... Boohoo, you're not a government agency anymore TABCorp, so you have to face the real world like everyone else. Stop playing the industry saviour card, all you care about is shareholder profits, nothing more. Read the article here . The wagering landscape has changed forever in Australia in favour of the punters. Monopolies deserve to crumble. There is very little danger of Aus totes ever going broke, it is pathetic scaremongering just like they said the world would cave in if Betfair ever landed in Australia, the spring carnival would be called off, corruption would be everywhere, yada yada yada.... such boring vitriol that these muppets should be held accountable for.

When will these clowns ever learn? Monopolies and self-righteous bureaucrats thinking they are exempt from the laws everyone else has to comply with. Bill Saunders lets rip yet again at RacingNSW. Virtual Formguide article

Surprise, surprise, the greed of Racing NSW is showing cracks already. Leading bookie Tom Waterhouse has taken them to court and so have numerous other bookies apparently. Other states are looking at counter-legislation (Racing NSW is now charging other state TABs for using NSW race fields, thus all the other states are fighting back to charge them for using theirs - it used to all be free under a "gentleman's agreement" which meant the small states weren't ridiculously priced out of it) but crucially, are looking at charging operators on gross profits - like any other business, which bookies are much more willing to agree to. Fees on turnover are long outdated and are more likely to be manipulated by transactions being taken off-ledger... Bill Saunders pulls no punches analysing this week's events here

Bill Saunders sinks the boots into Racing NSW, the NSW Govt and of course, the king of idiots, Robert Nason. Read the Virtual Formguide article here about the flawed legislation and this one about the NSW Govt's likelihood of being embarrassed in court .