French warming to in-play; TOTE could shed 80 jobs; Rudd to ditch pokies reform

france aussieFrench online sports bettors are increasingly switching from pre-match betting to gambling in-play. Figures released by GamblingData give projections on the amount of money per stake in 2011. They found that in-play stakes online were an average of €20.47 whereas those put on before the game were a mere €5.87 per stake in comparison.

80 people will be without work when the handover of TOTE Tasmania is completed late next month reports The Mercury. Tatts is taking the firm off the government for $103million and is getting rid of staff in areas where they already have capacity. Staff members were briefed in small meetings and one of those surrendering his position could be chief executive Craig Coleman. Tatts spokesperson Michael Mangos did confirm: “It is our intention to retain most of the customer-facing staff, the retail sales management and a number of corporate and broadcasting functions.”

State Premier Lara Gittings was on hand to answer questions and confirmed why the positions were being lost.

“As part of the sale agreement, the State Government sought a binding commitment that Tatts would continue to operate the Tasmanian retail network, along with the call centre and radio network, however, I regret that there will be some job losses in duplicated areas of the business,” she said.

Plans for pokies pre-commitment would allegedly have gone up in smoke had Kevin Rudd become Australia’s Prime Minister. Clubs Australia claims that Alan Griffin, a Labor member and Rudd’s chief numbers man, told them back in November that Rudd is sympathetic to their cause. A clubs Australia statement read: “It was made clear at that meeting that Kevin Rudd was sympathetic to the concerns of clubs and that as Prime Minister he would kill mandatory pre-commitment.”

The news comes after foreign minister Rudd resigned from his position to concentrate on a fight for the country’s leadership.