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In a move welcomed by the BHA the government has today announced that the Tote is up for sale. Bidders will be sought ‘this autumn’.
Nic Coward (BHA) reaction –
"Racing, through the British Horseracing Authority, has been in close dialogue with Government about resolving the future of the Tote for a number of months. A creative and modern approach is needed.
"We look forward to continuing this constructive process, with the interests of Racing at its heart, as has been confirmed by the Chancellor, the Secretary of State and the Minister in today’s statement, which we welcome."
Dont be fooled , it will be sold to the highest bidder , and that includes a bunch of hairy blokes from Japan
Nic Coward may not be in his job next summer , the BHA is being pushed aside by the Horsemen….
lets wake up and smell the cornflakes /….
Ricky
According to the RP, ‘Lazards (sic) will move into the Tote’s head office in Wigan today.’
You’d have thought they’d check for such obvious typos on their front page.
200m for a sleeping giant or 1.5bn for a crumbling empire? Talk about a no brainer. Anyone fancy forming a consortium and submitting a bid?
Interesting times ahead for sure.
Anyone know when or if the Tote’s exclusive rights on pool betting in this country ends?
They were given seven years, erm, seven years ago.
However, I’d assume their stranglehold would go further than any legal rights. I doubt any of the major foreign totes would consider any other pool betting operation that launches legitimate for co-mingling purposes.
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Is the Victorian ( Australia ) Tote license up for grabs as well? It certainly makes for an interesting time and a great global opportunity for a big player. James Packer and his consortium of mates? Betfair?
Bookmaker Fred Done today said he ‘is a serious contender’ to buy the Wigan-based Tote after the government announced it would be sold.
The Warrington-based BetFred boss said: "We are a definite runner. I am putting a financial and legal team together and my expectation is that there will be no more than a handful of serious players in contention.
"We are the fourth biggest bookmakers in the UK and if we managed to get hold of the Tote we would still be fourth, but we would be a lot closer to the other three.
"The advantage that we can see in BetFred acquiring the Tote is that we are only eight miles up the road from its headquarters and there would be fewer jobs shed if it came to us than anyone else.
"We are doing our homework and, if the figures stack up, then we will put in a bid."
Manchester Evening News…rest of article HERE
Interesting that reportedly one of the likely bidders for the Tote is Cenkos. Paul Roy, currently Chairman of the BHA, is a non-exec director of Cenkos. As mentioned, interesting.
richardon previous occasions, other names mentioned have also included stan james, paddy power, and sportech.
hills and ladbrokes were thought ruled out on competition grounds, but not so gala coral if not otherwise distracted.
greek lottery operator onan was rumoured sniffing around hills and might be interested.
for a bit of vertical integration, i wonder if jockey club racecourses might consider bidding, alone or in consortium ?
doubt that hkjc would be permitted to by hk government even if it wanted to.
One dark horse that hasn’t been mentioned is, erm, the name that must not be mentioned.
A serious bid from ‘John Wilson’ wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
A couple of corrections:
Glenn: The 7 years is correct but runs from the date of sale of the Tote
Wit: Although you may have been making a comment on the company’s way of doing business, it’s OPAP not ONAN!
And not sure if this is the dark horse referred to by Glenn, but flushed with IPO cash, you would have thought Betfair a likely candidate
A couple of corrections:
Wit: Although you may have been making a comment on the company’s way of doing business, it’s OPAP not ONAN!hey, i was simply quoting their own website:
http://www.opap.gr/pages.fds?pageID=458&langid=2
hence my use of lower case ;o)
Whoever the Tote is sold to there should be watertight terms which ensure racing’s income from turnover should not be diminished by a loophole (such us the purchaser then going ‘overseas’.
A point (among a few others) well made by my fellow Scot Alex Salmond on today’s Morning Line.
When Alex hangs up his boots as First Minister the BHA could do worse than install him in a senior position.
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