After rejecting a purchase offer for the Tote from a consortium of racing interests as too low, the British government now plans to auction the state-owned bookmaker. The government will appoint advisers to handle the sale. In the meanwhile Ian Good will continue to serve as chairman of the Tote until a new one is appointed to supervise the sale. Half the net proceeds of the sale will be given to the racing industry. The Tote operates on-course betting and a chain of 450 betting shops. It had revenues of £2.4 billion in 2007 with profit up 27 percent to £30.7 million.
CryptoLogic Limited announced today its fourth-quarter and year-end results will be released on March 18. Brian Hadfield, the company's new president and CEO, will host an analyst/shareholder conference call that morning at 8:30 (EST), before the market opens in Toronto.
The Guardian reports that the value of Gala Coral has been cut in half. The information comes by way of an investor in Permira, one of the private equity firms with ownership in the company. Gala itself has confirmed it is talking with its lending banks about amending some of its borrowing agreements. Senior debt is being priced down on the secondary debt markets to below 85p on the pound.
WPT Enterprises on March 5 amended its April 27, 2007 Software Supply and Support Agreement with Cryptologic and WagerLogic Limited, lowering the annual minimum payment guarantee payable to Cryptologic from $2,500,000 to $750,000. In addition, WPTE exercised its option to have Cryptologic develop online poker rooms in two additional languages, Spanish and German, for a fee of $100,000.
Six-time champion jockey Kieren Fallon lost his final appeal to lift a ban placed on him by France Galop for failing two drug tests for banned substances. "The ban has been confirmed. We had official confirmation today. I do not know the exact dates. It's a very long time. Of course I am disappointed but we knew it would be very hard to change the ban," said Herve Naggar, Fallon's agent in France.