Not one to follow

Only one place in the world has allowed bookmakers to proliferate. No coincidence, it is also the one place in the world where racing is in a parlous state.

Somehow, Peter Battistella (14/9) would have us believe that Betfair is the punter’s saviour and racing in England is somewhat to be envied. Given rich green turf and a potential factor of four times our betting turnover, it certainly should be just that. Unfortunately they find themselves in big trouble, and we must be careful not to follow their lead.

Prizemoney is at an all-time low and is in drastic contrast to the increasing costs of owning a horse. Course entry fees are at an all-time high. Old, crumbling stands on course have mostly plain concrete steps. In betting shops around the country, wagers are still placed in fairly modest surroundings, where punters still write their bets in longhand on paper, giving the meeting and race time like they did 50 years ago. Settlers sit in back rooms.

Further innovation, without national pools and with more than 200 individually licensed bookmakers (20 of these would be considered "large", with branches) is, of necessity, limited, although the example of the Tote has been traditionally copied in terms of bet variation, and dividends either calculated on an established scale, or settled at "Tote odds".

Ah, the Tote! It doesn’t always enjoy deserved supremacy. For many years the English government’s totalisator was left to assert itself against the bookmakers.

These were times when almost all betting was win or each way, and the Tote’s mostly on-course offerings of Forecast, Placepot and Jackpot only gradually made an impact.

The tote was achieving at best 15 percent and more generally 10 percent of the total monies wagered, and there were high costs associated with setting up the Tote network and for 40 years the government more or less stood by and let it become just one alternative.

The fabulous innovation of flexi betting was introduced there some four years ago, but with little fanfare. About 18 months ago, having searched in vain for items of family silver left to sell, the British government decided to rid itself of another asset and amidst howls of local protest sold the Tote to Betfred (one of those 20 larger bookmakers) for the paltry sum of £130 million ($A220m), plus the pension fund liability of £70 million ($A120m).

It effectively spelt the beginning of the end for English racing, and it might explain why their bookmakers are searching the world for other pastures.

English racecourses, already unable to manage on the bookmakers’ poor turnover percentage, and now without the hope of expanding the Tote, will have to increase their standard course entry fee from $40 to $50 and hit the owners’ race entry fees even harder.

It’s a sad state of affairs over there, as evidenced on my five trips during the past 10 years. Here in Australia we are thoroughly spoilt, with our guaranteed betting turnover takeout paying for everything. Do we want to put that at risk? The threat of punters’ money going to the mostly offshore "corporates" as they are known, will hopefully diminish once the NSW tote has upgraded the antiquated equipment used in most of its outlets and all three totes have amalgamated.

And we now have fully fledged bookmakers of our own in fixed-odds tote betting. The danger of their framing over-round markets becomes totally obliterated (if that’s a complaint) once their "real" pools take shape. These pools will be massive and even better balanced once amalgamation happens.

And incidentally, the mooted merger of pools is so easy now that all three TABs have quoted share values. It was the only bonus of these valuable assets being sold off! They could at last merge peacefully, without state government intervention.

Now the remaining challenges should be in the transmission and blending of data.