The Return of attheraces?
England's 59 tracks are contemplating their next move in talks that could see the revitalization of the broadcasting arm of attheraces by late June.
A formal offer to resurrect the channel was faxed to all racecourses Monday afternoon. They have until Wednesday to reach a decision that will have substantial ramifications for the tracks, the racing industry and punters.
The proposed plan would have the station re-launch on June 21, the Monday after the running of the Royal Ascot, ending an 84-day blackout of live racing coverage.
"We now feel we can make a revised media rights proposal unencumbered," explained Matthew Imi, who has been tabbed as the chief executive of the "new attheraces,"
The plan calls for a daily TV racing channel to run for until at least 2011, with an option for a further three years. Racecourses would be offered a direct shareholding in new ATR, starting at 10 percent with the potential to rise to a third equal share with BSkyB and Arena.
The shareholding clause is seen as a way to launch the new service and still pacify the debate of what to do with £50 million in rebates due from tracks and representing initial installments paid by attheraces under the now-collapsed original deal.
William Hill Joins List of Virtual Racing Operators
Britain's second biggest bookmaker, William Hill, rolled out its virtual racecourse on Tuesday.
With the launch of Greenside Park, William Hill joins an ever-growing population of "cartoon" betting outlets that includes two virtual dog tracks--Millersfield and Brushwood--alongside two racing venues--Portman Park and Steepledowns--and others devoted to online punters.
The company says the new offering was rolled out to meet punter demands.
It stated in a news release issued Monday, "Betting shop punters in the U.K. have demonstrated such a ferocious appetite for VR horseracing over the last two years that industry-wide turnover for simulations is expected to reach £500 million by the end of 2004."
The new venture is set to bring the VR experience to William Hill's 250,000 online punters, who will be able to place multiple bets on Greenside Park and other events 24 hours a day.
Sullivan Threatens Suit over Allegations of Big Bet
Darwin bookie Michael Sullivan was considering legal action against a rival who claimed a $5 million bet placed with Sportingbet was bogus.
News of the bet, which resulted in a huge windfall for the bookie, made national headlines but the legitimacy of the bet was questioned by Melbourne bookmaker Michael Eskander, who claimed it was part of a publicity stunt.
In the wake of the news of the huge loss, which resulted when the heavy favorite took second in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes in Sydney on Saturday, Eskander had his own reaction.
"I'll have an even $5 million with you it's not true," he was quoted as saying throughout the Aussie press.
Sullivan said the bet would be easily verified when the Northern Territory government collects about $19,000 in turnover tax. But he would not identify the Europe-based Australian businessman who made the bet.
"I'm not going to discuss my clients, whether they bet $50 or $5 million," he said.
Betdaq to Sponsor Racing Event
Betdaq has announced plans to sponsor the £75,000 Ormonde Stakes at Chester Racecourse.
Also joining as a title sponsor for events at Chester is Internet bookmaker Blue Square, which announced plans to sponsor the entire three-day August Festival.
Betdaq's Rob Hartnett said the sponsorship agreement made sense for his company, which has seen betting turnover increase during the early portions of 2004.
"We have been steadily increasing our racing profile in line with the growing volumes of betting we handle on the sport," he said.
News that Channel 4 would be carrying the Chester Festivals may have sealed the deal.
"The extension of the TV deal was critical to our commitment, as the value of TV pictures is immense," Hartnett said. "Without TV, racing would be very much poorer in terms of its appeal to sponsors such as ourselves and even as a betting medium."
A Record-Setting Payout
The largest payout since the inception of betting shops in 1961 in England came last week as a 51-year-old punter made £878,939 after staking only £4. The bet was a Tote Scoop6 placed at a Coral shop.
If the punter picks the winner of this weekend's feature race, the Betfred Gold Cup, he will get another £983,495 in bonus money, making his total winnings £1,862,434.
Betfair Continues War of Words
Leading P2P betting exchange Betfair has taken issue with some of the U.K. Joint Scrutiny Committee's recommendations for the Draft Gambling Bill. The company wrote to every Member of Parliament in the House of Commons stating its case that the proposed compulsory classification of frequent exchange bettors is unnecessary. In its letter, Betfair also said that traditional bookmakers are afraid of legitimate competition.
"The major bookmakers seek to categories some betting exchange punters as bookmakers, because they know that doing so will severely hamper the exchange betting model which they see as a solely commercial threat to their own business," the company said in its letter. "If they succeed in this aim, it will be to the detriment of the consumer, while doing nothing to strengthen the objectives of government, namely: the protection of the vulnerable; fairness to the punter; and keeping crime out of sport. Indeed it would weaken those objectives and ultimately deny horseracing, amongst other major sports, the financial and regulatory support delivered by Betfair."
TVG Passes on Youbet.com Warrant
Youbet.com, Inc. announced last month that ODS Technologies, a subsidiary of Gemstar-TV Guide International notified Youbet that it will not exercise a warrant issued to Gemstar-TV Guide's TVG racing network. The warrant, when aggregated with the shares acquired pursuant to the exercise of a prior warrant to TVG, would have entitled TVG to 51 percent of the outstanding shares of Youbet and certain board representation.
Youbet will issue 1 million shares of common stock as a result of TVG's providing notice by April 1, 2004. The warrant was originally scheduled to expire May 18, 2004. In addition to the 1 million shares, TVG presently owns approximately 4 million shares of Youbet.
If the warrant had been exercised, TVG would have had to pay approximately $36.5 million to Youbet.
Record Turnover for Grand National
Bookmakers took a record number of bets on this year's Grand National, with over £200 million taken in bets on the big race.
There was a 20 percent increase in betting on the race, which was a sell-out with a record crowd of more than 70,000, course officials said.