News

Victoria Racing Club's international prize fight

21st Jul 2009

Herald Sun - Adrian Dunn - Tuesday, 21 July 2009

VICTORIA Racing Club fears the state could mirror British racing's poor prizemoney unless the corporate bookmaking payment model's addressed.

VRC chief executive Dale Monteith said corporate bookmakers, offering TAB odds and incentives, were diverting money away from Victorian racing.

Monteith described as "less than desirable" the returns from the corporate bookmakers, who pay Racing Victoria a fee based on gross products (10 per cent of Victorian betting revenue, rising to 15 per cent during the spring carnival).

Sydney radio presenter Alan Jones will host a meeting of industry leaders at Randwick on Friday week that will discuss what they claim is the threat corporate bookmakers pose to the industry by not paying an acceptable fee.

Monteith said the VRC did not oppose competition to the TAB in the form of fixed-odds betting, saying the two had always co-existed.

"But the tote-odds betting and incentives offered by corporate bookmakers and the returns from it under race fields legislation are less than desirable," Monteith said.

"Unless there is a way the industry can address this issue, we can see distributions to the industry -- and I'm not talking about race clubs, but people whose livelihood depends on racing -- declining.

"We could be presiding over a situation that sees us heading closer to a model of the northern hemisphere, which does not provide adequate levels of support for people who make their living out of racing."

Monteith said prizemoney for some races at meetings at Newmarket, among the top racecourses in Britain, was only pound stg. 5,000 ($10,100).

He said the low level of prizemoney in Britain was largely because of the betting system, which is bookmaker-centric, while Australian racing was strong because it had benefited from what the tote system had delivered.

Monteith said this was another pivotal moment in racing history that would shape the industry's future.

He said there was a certain amount of risk attached to the introduction of the TAB in the 1960s and the privatisation of the TAB in 1994, but the rewards had proved enormous.

"We are almost at the same point now with the changing landscape around wagering. Unless we get it right, the risks are huge and the rewards may not be there," Monteith said.

"There's no doubt it is an issue that the industry collectively needs to understand with all its nuances, and if we are all of the same mind we need to seek dialogue with the Federal Government."

Monteith said the Lindsay Maxsted report, commissioned by the three Melbourne metropolitan clubs into their future operations, was nearing completion and would be presented to the clubs before the end of the month.