29-10-2007 Racing industry fears Betfair's expansion in New South Wales

Racing NSW Chief Executive Peter V'landys said the government's plans to license Betfair could be financially devastating for the racing industry.

V'landys said Betfair offered to pay 24 cents for every $100 bet compared to $1 paid by bookmakers and $4.50 returned by the totalisator. "Racing NSW would make about $200,000 per annum out of betting exchanges and lose tens of millions of dollars in totalisator tax," V'landys said.

Betfair Director of Corporate and Business Affairs Andrew Twaits denied the betting exchange was looking to obtain an operating license in NSW, but confirmed it was in talks with the government to advertise and sponsor races in NSW. "We've proposed a product fee that is at the high level of what any operator in Australia pays, which is 20 per cent of our gross revenue," said Twaits, who also denied that a Betfair's presence in New South Wales would be detrimental to the TAB.

"We only compete head to head with the TAB in a very, very small part of their market, we only operate on win and place bets, we're an online operator," added Twaits. "Online bets account for about 10 per cent of the TAB's revenue and win and place is about half of their revenue so we're only going head to head on five per cent of the TAB's business."