After two years of preliminary studies and consultations with British experts, Cyprus is getting ready to change its present pari mutuel betting system to a fixed-odds betting model as used in Britain.
George Hadjiminas, marketing manager of the Nicosia Race Club, said fixed-odds betting would be devastating for Cypriot horseracing.
“You cannot transfer a system that works in Britain to Cyprus. The situation is totally different.”
In a pari mutuel betting system, all bets of the same category are placed into a pool and the final payout is not determined until the pool is closed, while in fixed odds betting, the payout is determined at the time of the wager.
Hadjiminas has defined the pool-based betting system as a “safe and fraud-free system,” unlike the fixed odds system which does not provide any financial guarantees to the industry.
“The British system gives back very little to the horseracing industry, but they do not expect money from betting to support the industry,” said Hadijminas, who also added that the revenues the Nicosia Race Club gets from betting are essential to the survival of horseracing in Cyprus.
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