‘Significant’ Betfair shareholder pushes back against Levy foes

Steven Stradbrooke
September 25, 2010
2 Comments

Betfair-Shareholder-Pushes-BackEverybody’s been piling on Betfair lately — the British Horseracing Authority, Sportingbet, William Hill, even Tasmania… But the volume has really ramped up ever since the betting exchange announced its intention to make an initial public offering. (People get a little hyperbolic whenever the word ‘billion’ gets bandied about.) These critics want Betfair to pony up a thicker wad o’ cash to the horseracing Levy, one more reflective of the massive sums the company ‘handles’ for its customers.

Now a former Betfair PR Director, Mark Davies, is pushing back against these demands, and he’s using Bodog to bolster his argument. After Bodog posted odds on how well the company’s IPO would come off, Mark played devil’s advocate, using his blog to question Bodog’s right to offer such a wager. Mark pointed out that setting up the IPO has cost Betfair a small fortune in time, effort and money, whereas Bodog had invested nothing, yet stood to profit from using the IPO as the subject of a wager. Mark felt that if the BHA could claim a proprietary right over its horse races, Betfair could claim ownership of the IPO, and charge a rights fee for anyone seeking to profit from it.

Of course, Bodog’s position would be that placing a wager on the outcome of Betfair’s float is probably a safer bet than actually purchasing the stock. Viewed in that light, Bodog putting up this market can be seen as something of a public service, one it doesn’t feel it needs permission to perform.

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Tags: Article, Betfair, horse racing levy, Mark Davies
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  • http://Www.markxdavies.com Mark Davies

    I think you missed the heavy irony of my posting, which was written as if written by the Chairman of the self-styled Sports Rights Owners’ Coalition.

    Their position is that the betting industry should be paying them a fee on the basis that they put on the show. I think it’s an absurd position to take, and I was using the Bodog market to show just how absurd it is. It would clearly be absolutely ridiculous for Bodog either to have to ask permission to run a market like this or to pay a fee for doing so. That should be abundantly clear to anyone; but the position is entirely analogous to the one which SROC maintains, with a number of people sympathetic to their cause.

  • Calvin Ayre

    Hi Mark. Nice to have you reading our site. I read your blog post and really enjoyed it and for sure understood your irony. I read Steven’s coverage of this above and he has taken a different angle slightly, but is clearly saying the same thing as you are. He is just adding in our opinion that being public is not the best structure operationally in this industry.

    Basically to me everyone is on the same page here as we agree with your position.

    Cheers and hope we can meet one day.

    Calvin