- This topic has 74 replies, 22 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 8 months ago by
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- Total Posts 17716
In UK people approach these things with a lot more reason than the rest of Europe.
There is some argument going on as witnessed in this thread but in other places we hear crazy things, in an effort to justify prohibitionism.
If thererefore UK doesnt’t help, government and private industry together, it’s curtains and the recoil will hurt UK also, real bad.
There is ample opportunity for money to be made by gambling organizations without having to become thieves.In UK people approach these things with a lot more reason than the rest of Europe.
There is some argument going on as witnessed in this thread but in other places we hear crazy things, in an effort to justify prohibitionism.
If thererefore UK doesnt’t help, government and private industry together, it’s curtains and the recoil will hurt UK also, real bad.
There is ample opportunity for money to be made by gambling organizations without having to become thieves.Well said Froddo.
The answer to all this might be to create a national betfair type of organization.
Customer friendly and government friendly at the same time.I know it’s not possible:
Many have suggested – repeatedly, ad nauseam, to the point of tearing one’s hair out – that a Tote Exchange would at the very least be worth investigating, researching and costing. This move by Betfair surely makes the case for it that more compelling, in my probably flawed and naive opinion
Anyway, the large unkempt tangly tree from which this bud could have broken and flowered, if only loving hands from within the Great Racing Forest had pruned the hulk, is to be dug up and replanted in a private wood where KEEP OUT signs abound
So fellow Tote-Exchangers let’s cease our well-intentioned hollering in deaf ears. But, if you must, do what I have done in the opening paragraph of this missive: enjoy the voiding a voluminous piss in the wind
- Total Posts 17716
A tote exchange is an exchange ran by the national tote or some kind of new type of bet ?
It is possible to create new popular bet types, without the strictures of fixed odds betting but I ‘m not going to give details.
However betfair are working hard everyday while some others are asleep all the time or doing things other than their highly paid jobs.Aren’t Betfair’s directors also legally compelled to do the best they can for their shareholders?
Their share price is half of what it was at its highest. There will be a significant degree of panic in the boardroom, I suspect.
If you are utterly honest and objective, and picture yourself sitting in the CEO’s chair at Betfair, what would you have done?
Aren’t Betfair’s directors also legally compelled to do the best they can for their shareholders?
Their share price is half of what it was at its highest. There will be a significant degree of panic in the boardroom, I suspect.
If you are utterly honest and objective, and picture yourself sitting in the CEO’s chair at Betfair, what would you have done?
Under the current UK rules, directors’ duties including duty to act in good faith to the best interest of the companies; duty to avoid conflicts of interest; duty not to profit from their offices, and duty of care and skill are enshrined in the common law rules and equitable principles and also in statutes such as the Companies Act 1985 (the 1985 Act) as amended by Companies Act 1989.
They are no longer governed by those rules.
If they were legally required to do the best for their shareholders then the information supplied to Goldman Sachs etc for the IPO launch would not have been so inaccurate that Betfair shares have fallen by nearly half in the few months since launch and have a lot further to fall as the promised earnings are simply not there. Why no Stock Exchange fraud inquiry?
Has the CEO got any such control – once a company goes public then the City etc decide what happens, not the CEO. With revenue per customer falling rapidly in all areas he is probably paving the way to his next job move already, plus a nice payout plus pension from shareholder’s money.
This thread is concentrating on Betfair but it is putting this with all the other UK bookmakers that have gone offshore that gives the full picture of the problem. A problem that again Government has been asleep at the wheel with. What changes?
- Total Posts 17716
If you are utterly honest and objective, and picture yourself sitting in the CEO’s chair at Betfair, what would you have done?
I would have made the float thieves wait, raised more capital, purchased the Tote instead and given Betfair a High St presence. Tackle Corals, Ladbrokes and William Hill head on and take them out! A well run Betfair/Tote alliance would kill the parasites.
agree with Chiswick …good post Sir …however plainly the Betfair guys could have done that and decided to pass
Its a right mess now
Ricky
A high street presence would be unprofitable because the costs associated with it would be higher than the profit they’d make on such a low-margin product.
- Total Posts 17716
If you are utterly honest and objective, and picture yourself sitting in the CEO’s chair at Betfair, what would you have done?
"Utterly honest and objective"
in one sentence with
"Betfair CEO"
make up a contradiction in terms, so your rhetorical sieve holds no water.
Picturing myself in the CEO’s chair (utterly honest and objective cove that I am) I’d have stuck by my employees in the UK, bought the Tote and weathered the storm. Further, I’d encourage the shareholders to take the medium/long term view rather than go for greedy quick returns.
What’s more, in the light of my boundless honesty and integrity as CEO, I’d allow races I was sponsoring to keep the names by which racing fans know and love them.
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It’s Don Camillo versus Pepone in Europe.
Bookies and monopolies against betfair.The punters, many of whom are WWI veterans, sit back and watch.
Outrageous.Let me tell you this story from Greece:
On Xmas eve the jockey club FEE applied a cut on the trainers percentage, some 5%. As a result no races, new years day racing abandoned for the first time in 85 years and the races resumed mid January, after the government minister rejected the proposal (the Greek equivalent of DCMS).
In October the same authorities cut the punters percentage by 1.5% and not only that but they did not publish it.
We found it by cross checking the dividends tables.
Excuses that followed were a) we lost the keys to the internet, b) it’s all legal c) because we lost the keys to the internet we consider the legal requirement to publish waived.
Right now I ‘m tackling the issue with the help of the various ombudsmen.
But most of the punters remain sound asleep (unlike the professional trainers who immediately reacted spontaneously for their problem).Throughout Europe and possibly in UK also the punters are under attack. We are considered something like Taliban or Hammash and we have rockets thrown at us.
Further, I’d encourage the shareholders to take the medium/long term view rather than go for greedy quick returns.
David Yu has been quoted on several occasions as saying that Betfair are neither a British company, nor a Horse Racing company, Pinza.
Nic Coward is right in saying a voluntary levy (or equivalent expenditure) isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.
Check this out:
http://www.egrmagazine.com/news/882677/ … odus.thtml
"In a conference call with city analysts this morning, queries were raised about the wisdom of Betfair’s continued methods of contributing to the horseracing industry, with suggestions that its existing goodwill (or lack thereof) with the industry might make sponsorship a more beneficial option than continued levy contributions. Yu responded by explaining that the company will continue to hold talks with the racing board before settling on the best way to go about contributing to the industry.
“We believe making contributions to racing is important, and we will look at what the right mechanism is. We need racing to do well and if it continues to thrive that would only be good for our business.”
If things don’t go to well in 2013 and 2014, or if the BHA continue down obvious roads in maximising deserved revenue, how ruthless will he be with the "voluntary levy contribution"? I would say very ruthless indeed. It was Yu’s decision to "redirect" the last voluntary levy contribution, the one made from overseas users of the interface.
If you want to see a company with a pro-horse racing strategy try Corals, who this week described the sport as critical to their development in a way Betfair have never done. The TRF vox populi may pour scorn on the traditional bookmaker, but this company’s verbal, marketing and philosphical support of horse racing is heartening.
- Total Posts 17716
A high street presence would be unprofitable because the costs associated with it would be higher than the profit they’d make on such a low-margin product.
How’s that so when two businesses would be merging and the Tote already has a High St presence? Betfair would simply be a product add on. Is it because you cannot make the business model work for you? I certainly know how I’d do it but wont be disclosing it here.
- Total Posts 17716
David Yu has been quoted on several occasions as saying that Betfair are neither a British company, nor a Horse Racing company, Pinza.
Yes indeed. The man who used to be responsible for Alta Vista’s e-commerce (remember Alta Vista?) has indeed said such things. This seems curious for a company which is proud to proclaim itself a double winner of the Queen’s Awards to Enterprise, twice appearing in the annual list of Best British Companies; and has horse racing photos lavishly plastered all over its website!
Why doesn’t the government take a leaf out of what France did and block online gambling to Betfair, because as far as I am aware you cannot log into your Betfair account with your laptop while in france, and didn’t the USA ban online gambling all together.
Betfair wants to employ the accountants who work for my bank Barclays, who paid £112 million in taxes to the UK government and then paid out $2.5 billion in bonuses to their bankers.
I look at this as a consumer.
I am sitting here typing this on my Dell computer, where was this computer made? I doubt it was made in England.
I have a glass of wine in front of me, its from France.
I was just munching on a piece of celery which was grown in Spain which I took out of my Fridge which was made in Germany. When I bought that fridge freezer I had to get one of a certain size and the only choices I had was ones made in Germany or Turkey.
Yesterday I chopped up some Basil that was grown in Israel in my Kenwood mini chopper which was made in China.
Today I washed some clothes in my washing machine made by Whirlpool which was owned sometime back by Philips a Dutch company.
Somebody on betfair gave me £2 to win £1,000 on a horse trained in France by John Hammond to win our 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.
The best price any bookmaker would give on Oddschecker was 33/1.Should I have not taken that price because Betfair have decided to go and register as a company in Gibraltar?
When I had a car, a dagenham dustbin, the reality was it was only assembled in England, parts where built and sent from different places on our planet to be assembled in Essex,
If our Government makes it less profitable for a business to stay here then why shouldn’t they go elsewhere?
If I could get everything I need at a competive price made or grown in England then I would, but I cannot.
If that horse were to win the 2000 Guineas, then I would most likely spend that £1,000 here in England, but just how much of what I bought would actualy be of English origin,I have no clue.
- Total Posts 17716
I look at this as a consumer.
So you do. Your catalogue of consumption will warm the heart of the Marketing Suits everywhere.
None of what you say is remotely analogous with what Betfair are up to. I don’t expect you got your wine from France for nothing, just because you happen to live in England (if you do.)
That is what Betfair are up to here.
But all that pales besides the most disturbing aspect of your post. What on earth are you doing
chopping
basil? And in a
processor
?? Basil should always be
torn
, and
by hand
.
Otherwise you completely destroy the flavour. And if you were making pesto (
British
pine kernels best) then a mortar and pestle gives much better results.
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