Sport is made for betting

There's no denying that Australia is a nanny state now. Political correctness, occupational health & safety and ambulance-chasing lawyers have changed the fabric of society, almost entirely for the poorer. A couple of years ago, a constitutional challenge by corporate bookmakers and Betfair threw out the age-old ban on bookmakers advertising in states other than the one they were licensed in. It defied the constitutional notion of free trade across state borders which every other industry had benefitted from since federation in 1901. But the nanny state mentality fought back in order to protect their once state-owned monopoly TABs, with the banning of incentives for free bets - standard marketing practice anywhere else in the world. Bookies charged for bet offers CHARGES have been laid against three bookmakers just four days out from the biggest event of the Spring Carnival. The Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulaion has laid charges against three bookmaker firms ove...

After recent revelations about leaks in sports betting and unknown punters being able to strike questionable bets (Melbourne Storm NRL scandal), Betfair Australia CEO Andrew Twaits put forward the idea of making all punters bet via accounts, or at least be registered so the money trail is traceable. Naturally, this would turn a few off, but the Victorian racing industry has had more than a handful of problems with dirty money being washed at the track by unsavoury gentlemen in tracksuits. When the Federal Government brought in legislation compelling the reporting of all wagers or payouts above $10k, what did they do? Simple, just have several tickets to win $5k each, bypassing the legislation. Or they would watch for a winning punter at the track and offer them a 15% premium to buy their winning ticket so they could collect 'clean' money from the bookmaker. Back in the early 90s, a member of the Gleeson family was caught as part of a race-fixing allegation at Harold Park harnes...

Western Australia, after copping a caning from the courts over trying to ban Betfair, has now reluctantly agreed to include a gross revenue deal in their racefield fees legislation. Every state now has to introduce some form of fee legislation, as they get charged by every other state for it, with the breakdown of the old gentleman's agreement which let the TABs bet on each other's product in a free contra deal. WA are in the position if being a net importer of racing product, so they are going to have to cover the shortfall somehow. Racing NSW are currently in court doing battle with Betfair and Sportsbet over their attempts at imposing a turnover-based fee, while Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania all went with fees on gross revenue. Victoria, the premier racing state in Australia, set their fee at 10% for the year rising to 15% during the prestige spring carnival. Sounds justified to me. South Aus went with 10% as well. Western Australia to apply retrospective race field...

Not sure exactly what this means - the fee structure gets overturned (how could it - surely they can't get Racing Victoria to change everyone else's fee structure?) or if it means the TABCorp's charge now changes to a significantly lower figure in line with everyone else? This could have ramifications... Tabcorp successfully challenge Victoria race fields fee We'll have to wait and see what Bill Saunders and the like have to say about it. The Age has more on the story here Tabcorp has $200m court win over racing fee Does it all go back to the drawing board now?

Some Australian states and other racing jurisdictions around the world are going backwards because of the pig-headed stubbornness of crusty old farts in charge of racing. Faction fighting over exclusive TV rights, trying to protect the totes from outside competition via unconstitutional laws or anti-competitive product fees etc. Victoria opened itself up to corporate bookmakers and Betfair betting on their high-quality racing with product fees based on profits rather than turnover (like every other business in the world), and suddenly a flood of money is coming in. This previously untapped resource is now bringing in the bucks and the same companies are investing plenty to sponsor races throughout the state. Racing Victoria details growth Meanwhile in NSW, head muppet Peter V'Landys is bleeding the state's racing industry dry, taking the corporate bookmakers and Betfair on in court, in a case he simply cannot win, based on any reasonable understanding of business law in the 21s...

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...

Despite the tired whingeing of Robert Nason, the corporates always were going to start sponsoring country racing. Day-to-day racing is the bread and butter of the Betfair and the corporate bookies, they want daily business, not just on Saturdays. Rod Nicholson files a rather factual report, rather than putting his usual Tabcorp-patsy spin on things. Is it going to cut TAB turnover? I doubt it. The higher profile racing gets, the benefits flow onto everyone. Supporting racing is more than just about the return from bets being passed back to the clubs (by legislation). Betfair boost for the bush A good sign for Victorian racing, let's hope other states are open to allow similar deals as well.

The wagering landscape of Australia has changed forever. Licensing Betfair, allowing interstate bookmakers to advertise in TAB heartlands... the Aussie punter now has a choice and the racing industry has to adapt or they will suffer if they stick to outdated ways of business. The new Minister for Racing in Victoria, Rob Hulls, and the CEO of Racing Victoria Ltd, Rob Hines, should be applauded for looking to the future and moving forward. Here's an excellent article from The Age. One thing that has always puzzled me is why races start so early in Australia. Why does the first race begin at 10.30 on Cup Day? Why do races start at midday during summer? Summer meetings in Britain rarely start before 2pm, which for Australia would be ideal - other timezones (WA, Singapore, HK, even Europe) have more opportunity to get involved. Peter V'Landys will send the NSW racing industry broke while Hines and Hulls take Victorian racing to another level.

Racing Victoria's new boss wants to embrace the future rather than deny that the sun will still come up like those muppets in New South Wales.... HeraldSun article Kudos to you sir, let's hope it is more than just words.