Struggling Sportsman
Britain’s new sports betting newspaper continues to struggle. It’s April ABC debut was flattered by bulk sales and, in reality was under 17,000 daily copies sold on average at full cover price. Things got worse in May where bulk sales were further increased to mask a full cover price fall in sales to under 13,000 copies sold. The paper’s executive claims it needs 40,000 daily sales to break even. The view the paper has got its strategy wrong and needs a revamp to a more sober format and content, designed to directly target Racing Post readers, has been repeatedly expressed and, unless the World Cup boosts sales, it’s beginning to look as if they’d have nothing to lose by such a radical change in direction.
Betfair Book Battle
Phil Moore, a freelance business journalist, is writing a book on the rise of Betfair. Although he went to school with Andrew Black, Betfair’s co-founder, Moore is determined to write a balanced and revealing account. He certainly seems to have caused some consternation over at Hammersmith, Betfair’s main HQ, with his plan. Mark Davies, son of the former BBC football commentator Barry Davies, and a Betfair Director, had planned to write a book himself, and has sent a circular to all Betfair staff, begging them to refuse to co-operate with Moore as he gathers research. It is to be hoped, however, that Moore is successful with his project, as an independent account promises to be a much more interesting read than a partisan eulogy to self-congratulation penned by a company insider.
Racing In Denial
The British Horseracing Board continues to be in denial of the crisis facing the ‘sport.’ Racing’s income from the UK betting industry – the Levy – is falling, increasing numbers of operators are avoiding it by moving offshore, low-margin internet operators like betting exchanges are forcing margins down, sports betting online and on the phone and Virtual Racing and Fixed Odds Betting Terminals in betting shops are making further inroads into racing’s market share. Yet racing is clinging to the idea it is doing well, pointing to the fact it is Britain’s second-biggest spectator sport behind football. However, big crowds at summer evening meetings are principally lured by the opportunity to drink alfresco and see a live band after racing thus rendering them less cost-effective customers than the sort (punters) racing needs in order to prosper. Racing also continues to face big integrity problems relative to other sports and this can’t be helping turnover either.
Scoop6 Racing Live On
Channel 4 Racing and The Morning Line, its sister programme are virtually certain to remain intact for at least another three years after Racing UK and Channel 4 agreed to enter into exclusive negotiations on a new deal to start on 1 January 2007. The move has financial backing from the Tote and Levy Board, the Tote contributing £5.5 million over the period and the Levy Board putting in £750,000 next year and £500,000 in 2008. The programmes are sometimes referred to as Scoop6 racing and The Scoop Line because the programmes heavily promote the Scoop6, the Tote’s big Saturday multiple bet. Other UK betting operators have refused to fund the programme’s continued existence directly, but have nevertheless found themselves funding it anyway as Levy money – which comes from UK betting operators as a statutory requirement – is being used to prop up the show. Arguably all operators benefit from races being shown on a terrestrial platform hence they should pay for the privilege. Another argument, however, might be that the quality of the terrestrial programmes is so poor that the shows are an embarrassment to racing and betting industry alike.
Bag Of Sand Matched
Finally, on a less newsworthy, but more personal, note, the first week of the World Cup marked a landmark in the quiet progress made by my website, www.backandlay.com. BackAndLay is probably the UK’s smallest licenced operator. Since its November 2003 launch, it has had no promotional budget whatsoever and it operates with a very small team, consequently growth has been very slow. But slow growth is better than no growth, commission revenue for 2005 was 40 per cent up on commission revenue for 2004 and, last week, the Brazil v Croatia Group game attracted a matched bet of £1,000 on Brazil @ 1.39, the first four-figure bet to be fully matched at the website. It’s a proud moment for us, leaving us optimistic about our future prospects, especially when our long-awaited, free and unlimited usage, Application Programming Interface (API) comes online.
BBC
