Sporting Odds & Ends - April 2004

Bookmakers Feel Loss of attheraces

Bookmakers are reeling from an £8 million drop in betting turnover since daily TV racing ended in late March with the closure of attheraces.

The demise of attheraces has resulted in a serious decrease in betting (especially via telephone) for some bookmakers, and owners will face drastic cuts in prize-money if the trend continues.

"Our telephone turnover is down by 25 percent," an anonymous sports book operator said tod the London Sun. "The industry has lost £8 million in a fortnight. If people can't watch races at home, they will not bet. It is very worrying."

Easter Monday was racing's darkest day with not one of the eight British meetings, or the Irish National, on TV.

Corals' Simon Clare said the absence of live broadcasts on the TV affected his company too. "Our telephones were deadly quiet for a bank holiday," he said.

Another Battle in the Ladbrokes vs. P2P War

Ladbrokes last week resumed its public assault on betting exchanges by calling for immediate action from the U.K. government to prepare for the registration and taxation of professional layers on betting exchanges.

The move was a response to a report from British Parliament's Joint Committee on the Draft Gambling Bill. The report recommends that non-recreational layers be registered and information about them passed to the Gambling Commission due to be set up under the bill.

"We are very pleased that the committee, which has done an extremely thorough piece of work [and] has said that professional layers on exchanges should be registered, regulated and taxed," Ladbrokes Chief Executive Chris Bell explained. "It is a practical and sensible proposal and removes the anonymity of those layers who are quite clearly acting in way of business. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Betfair, should put this proposal into immediate effect via a Code of Practice."

BHB Turns to EU Courts in William Hill Matter

The battle between the British Horseracing Board and bookmaker William Hill over the use of the board's Internet database has been taken up in Europe's highest court, the European Court of Justice.

William Hill is asking the E.U. to overturn a British court's ruling (handed down in February 2001) establishing that the bookmaker does not have the right to offer its customers the BHB's database, which contains many years' worth of information on horses, owners and trainers.

The board is claiming an infringement of its rights according to E.U. data protection laws from 1996 (transposed into U.K. legislation two years later).

The database is intended to be a pure information tool for those directly involved in horse racing, such as television broadcasters, bookmakers and their customers. But the board contends that William Hill transposed the data directly onto its Internet gambling sites for use by its online customers.

A ruling on the case is expected this year.

William Hill Joins FTSE 100

The strong performance of William Hill's stock since the bookmaker was floated nearly two years ago has earned the company a place among England's top 100 listed companies.

The company was admitted to the FTSE 100 in March, taking the place of Amersham, the healthcare group that was taken over by General Electric.

It earned the promotion after seeing its shares more than double since it was floated in June 2002. The average share listed in the FTSE 250 index of stocks in mid ranking companies rose by 10.3 percent in the same period. William Hill's profits surged to £201.7 million last year from £141.4 million in 2002.

Victor Chandler Comes Back to High Street

Victor Chandler, the independent bookmaker, this month returned to the high street for the first time in more than a decade with the purchase of Sports Bookmakers, a chain of 28 betting shops. The chain sold for an undisclosed sum, but it was believed to be in the £15 million to £20 million range. The deal, announced last week, includes shops mostly located in the home counties.

AllSportsMarket.com completes public beta test

AllSportsMarket.com, the world's first and only sports market with dividends, finished its public beta testing period this month and accumulated more than $3 million in volume.

Players battle against each other in live head-to-head competition. Using professional trading methods and tools modeled after Wall Street's NASDAQ, any sports or gaming fan can buy or sell stock in a sports team or sporting event. All trades are done in real time with actual cash dividends paid out to the players.

The market is driven by players' demand on any given issue as they compete for real money.

Sportingbet Delays Exchange Plans

A Budget Day announcement made last month by U.K. Chancellor Gordon Brown has prompted British online bookmaking firm Sportingbet to sideline plans for launching an Internet betting exchange

Sportingbet was conducting trials for the exchange, but put the project on hold after the announcement, which revealed that the policy for the taxation of exchanges will be reviewed.

Customs & Excise has been ordered to look at whether some or all users of exchanges should pay tax on their winnings.

Mark Blandford, the founder and deputy chairman of Sportingbet is calling for a speedy review.

"I would be very disappointed if this dragged on into next year," Blandford said, "because we want clarity in terms of competition."

EBA Welcomes Exchanges

The European Betting Association (EBA) denied claims that it is considering refusing membership to betting exchanges. A New Media Zero reports suggested that the new trade association might not allow Betfair to become a member, but Torbjörn Ihre, who handles external affairs for the association, has said that this is not the case.

"EBA has in its Articles of Association rules for which companies can apply for membership," Torbjörn explained. "EBA has never considered refusing membership to betting exchanges."

Betfair, FA Come to Terms

England's Football Association signed a memorandum of understanding with Betfair to monitor football betting with the aim of ensuring the continued integrity of English football.

The FA is the governing body of football in England, responsible for maintaining the highest standards across the sport. As football betting continues to grow in popularity, the partnership represents an important step to reinforce English professional football's international reputation for excellence and honesty.

The terms of the agreement allow The FA to access a greater level of information than it has previously been able to get from the betting industry.