Turf TV vs SIS

[steveh31]

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/ … 798507.ece

What are the implications going to be if they dont come to some resolution?

The changeover date is fast approaching and it will be people who frequent bookies for their racing who will suffer and the bookies when people stay at home to watch.

[% MAN]

The bookmakers reaction reminds me of the school bully who has had their own was for far too long and is finally being challenged – welcome to the real world of competition.

I think the most telling quote is “We will go with a diet of foreign and virtual racing”. Worryingly a large number of betting shop habitués are more than happy to bet on this dross, so the bookmakers ultimately don’t really care if they show the racing from all the UK tracks or not.

The only time the bookmakers will start taking notice of Turf TV is if the split starts impacting their margins.

When SIS was first set up, it provided the bookmakers with a monopoly as providers of racing pictures (I am excluding terrestial coverage here as it has only ever accounted for a very small percentage of coverage and thanks to the BBC it now accounts for even less).

With the advent of online betting and the provision of two dedicated racing channels, I suspect most serious punters will now bet and watch their racing at home and even if they don’t get to see the racing live they can set their videos to record the replays.

For people who do rely on their bookies for provision of their racing feeds, life will be difficult – the answer is probably short term pain and to vote with their feet, preferably to a bookmaker who is taking Turf TV. As I said earlier, as soon as their margins are hit the bookies will rethink.

[Black Sam Bellamy]

Can anyone report on whether there are any plans for the online exchanges to contribute to the Levy ?

[wit]

BSB

they already do.

have a look at the end of the "Racing’s Bleak Future" thread.

we’ve kind of established from audited accounts that Betfair paid £6.1 million of the £90 million levy – ie 6.77 per cent of the levy collected from bookmakers and exchanges – while claiming around the same percentage of the UK horseracing market.

don’t be snowed by the bookies – the exchange punter gives just as much in levy as the punter on the books.

best regards

wit

[Black Sam Bellamy]

Fair enough Wit…and I haven’t seen Betfair’s accounts.

Is there a figure for their revenue from Horse Racing only markets ? £6.1 million seems like a paltry figure to me.

[wit]

BSB

i got the accounts online for a quid from the Companies House website.

i can’t see a figure for Horse Racing only: absent inside knowledge, you’d have to try approximate it from other bits of information in the accounts:

BF’s accounts cite a group revenue figure (excluding the Aussie JV) of GBP 144m

BF’s accounts cite Gross Profits Tax of 16.8m, which x 100/15 = 112m.

(Of course, with an exchange GPT and levy is paid steadily on the commission they take race by race. By contrast, a bookie who loses on a race not only pays no GPT or levy on that race, he also pays no GPT or levy on the next winning race(s) either until he starts to show a profit over races taken as a group. So GPT in theory should be more amenable to inference in the case of an exchange compared to a potentially yo-yo bookie – such as Ladbrokes’ reported losing results for Oct/Nov 2006. But who knows how the gaming side might have affected it).

BF’s accounts cite a share of the UK horse racing market in 2006 of "still under 7 per cent", but up from 5 per cent in 2005.

paltry or no in absolute terms, their levy contribution seems pro rata to what the Big 3 contribute for their market share – so they all stand or fall together in the face of that criticism.

best regards

wit

[Pompete]

BSB…Betfair’s Levy Payments result soley from ‘Horseracing Betting Business’.

Wit…In all the documents I’ve seen the above is stated for the Exchanges. However, in the case of LBO’s the payments stem from ‘British Horseracing Betting Business’. ???

[thedarkknight]

INteresting stuff wit. How can we know Betfair’s true market share though? Surely it is relatively hard to measure against bookmakers as it depends how you treat bets that have been backed or laid and then backed again etc… I guess "total money risked by backers" would equate pretty much to what bookmakers take, although as you state, the GPT on bookies profits and the % of commission are still two different things.

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