Sports Relief get one of its first large donations for 2010 campaign

The sponsors of this years World Championship Snooker tournament Bet Fred are to donate £147,000 to Sports Relief following the maximum 147 break achieved by Stephen Hendry in his match on Tuesday at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, the last prior recorded professional 147 break belonged to Ding Junhui in the Maplin UK Championship in December 2008.

Sport Relief’s Head of Fundraising, Karl Reynolds said “We are thrilled that Stephen Hendry’s skill has potted Sport Relief an amazing £147,000. A big thank you to Stephen and Betfred for one of the first donations to Sport Relief 2010.”

The founder of Bet Fred;Fred Done said: “It’s fantastic that Sport Relief are receiving the £147,000 donation and I’m delighted that it was a true snooker legend in Stephen that made the 147 break.”

Betfred signs deal with Turf TV

Customers at Betfred stores are now able to watch  live horse racing from virtually every racecourse in Britain after the bookmaker signed an agreement with Turf TV for coverage to be broadcast in all of the companies 800 shops. The deal includes courses such as Newmarket, Aintree Newbury and Cheltenham.

The deal will initially see Betfred sign a five year deal with Turf TV, speaking of the agreement the boss of Betfred, Fred Done said “I’m very happy that an agreement has been reached with Turf TV.  My customers will be delighted that they can now look forward to watching every race, every day, in all my shops.”

Bet Fred to sponsor World Snooker Championship

The Gibraltar based online and store fronted company Betfred have confirmed that they will be the main sponsors for the World Snooker Championship for the next four years. The tournament will be now be known as Betfred.com World Snooker Championship.

The new deal has arrived just in time for this year’s televised event which starts on Saturday April 18th through to Monday May 4th at the world famous Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. The tournament last year was featured on the BBC receiving over 127 hours of coverage and was viewed by over 24 million people. The event also received coverage on Eurosport and CVTV5 in China where it attracted an audience of 10 million viewers.

Fred Done, chairman of Betfred said: “It’s always been an ambition of mine to sponsor a World Championship and this is a competition with so much history. When it comes to snooker this is the pinnacle of the sport and I look forward to watching the world’s greatest 32 players.”

The World Snooker Association has been looking for a new main sponsor since August of 2008 when the previous sponsors 888.com pulled out of 5 year deal 2 years early citing difficult economic climate as its reason for withdrawing.

Ladbrokes launch Bet British advertising campaign

The UK based bookmaker Ladbrokes has launched an advertising campaign started from 21st March aimed at encouraging punters to only place bets with UK licensed bookmakers, the campaign will appear in the Racing Post.

A PR spokesman for Ladbrokes said “Very few advertisers in the Racing Post are paying tax or levy in the UK but not many consumers would be aware of this. We are informing betting customers that by betting with Ladbrokes or other UK-based operators they are encouraging employment and tax generation in the UK as well as supporting British racing through the levy. We are also reinforcing the fact that while we are increasingly a global business we remain as British as British beef.”

Ladbrokes is responsible for paying 35% of all Horserace & Betting Levy for 07/08 payments made in the UK during this they paid £100.4m in Gross Profits Tax, £68.5 million in VAT and £49.9 million in Corporation Tax as well as paying £40.4 million in levy to UK horseracing and £45 million in local taxes.

How this campaign will be viewed by other operators is yet to be known but a majority do operate from offshore locations such as the Isle of Man, Gibraltar and Malta where companies based in these locations benefit from payer tax of just 1% or less, such as Sporting Bet, Blue SQ and Bet Fred.

Betfred to increase number of UK betting shops

The UK based sports bookmaker Betfred owned by the Done brothers has published its plans for the expansion for their chain of betting shops that would result in the company opening its 800th store during the spring of 2009 creating 350 jobs in the process and this could grow to 1,000 stores in the following three years.

The company currently operates 775 betting shops from its headquarters in Warrington, it has currently been expanding at the rate of 80 shops per year, the Betfred currently employs 4000 staff with 350 based at the Warrington headquarters.

Finance director of Betfred; Barry Nightingale expected turnover to increase by 5% over the next 12 months taking operating turnover to £1.6 billion.

Betfred sell off online casino operations

The UK based sports betting company Betfred has disposed of its online casino operations following several years of underperforming due to its belated entry into the online gaming market.  The sale took place in 2008 but has only just been revealed by the recently filed companies accounts of Betfreds holding company Lightcatch Ltd.

The company’s casino gaming division will still however remain on the Betfred.com website as the group has kept its online sports betting division.  The sale of Betfred NV has thought to have netted the owners of Betfred known as the Done Brothers in excess of £27 million. Although the division was profitable for Betfred it only made an operating profit of £3.3 million based on a turnover of £9.2 million in 2007.

Betfred’s finance director, Barry Nightingale said: “We have sold the online business, but we’re bound by the terms of the deal not to reveal any more details. It made commercial sense, but with our new partners the Betfred brand will continue to go from strength to strength in the online arena.”

Ladbrokes Live Horse Racing

Ladbrokes Live Horse Racing agreement has been signed with Turf TV this week in a deal worth £70 Million over 5 years. This equates to a deal worth £6,500 per shop and this was a deal which just had to happen.

Ladbrokes just could not do without Live TV pictures from 31 racecourses including such top venues as Ascot, Cheltenham, Newmarket, Aintree, Epsom and Sandown.

William Hill and Betfred will now have no option to also sign an agreement sooner rather than later as they will be at a competitive disadvantage on the high street and will face losing customers to their opposition.

UK Bookmakers & Turf TV

Turf TV which provides TV pictures to the Retail bookmakers in the UK has not had its introduction all plain sailing having targeted over half the UK courses and having secured the TV rights to these course but the online bookies have not taken this move sitting down and the latest in the saga is that Ladbrokes, William Hill, Coral and Fred Done have issued a High Court challenge against 30 of the 31 courses behind Turf TV, accusing them of infringing competition law by collectively selling their media rights exclusively to the new racing channel.

If that were not enough they are also claiming that Turf TV is abusing its position by raising charges for pictures from £1,600 to £6,500 per shop, increasing their bill by £50m a year and this is what really hurts these bookmakers who have thousands of shops between them spread throughout the UK.

A spokesman for Turf TV said that the case would be defended ‘vigorously’, adding that it would be issuing a counterclaim. “We are bringing competition to what was previously a monopoly market and the shareholders of what was the previous monopolist – Ladbrokes and William Hill – have a vested interest in preserving the monopoly of SIS,” he said.

Tom Kelly, chief executive of the Association of British Bookmakers, told the UK’s Telegraph newspaper that, with the exception of Ascot – which is not named in the claim – the courses gave rival broadcaster SIS, ‘no opportunity to discuss new contracts’.

The betting firms are seeking an injunction preventing any of the defendants from ‘giving effect to the collective exclusive licensing’, and additional, un-quantified damages.

Source:ATE Online

Betfred face advertising ban in the UK

About 1,000 gambling websites based overseas are to be banned from advertising in the UK. Popular sites such as Littlewoodscasino, Betfred Casino and Interpoker.com are among those subject to the ban, which comes into force in September 2007. Broadcasters and publishers breaching the rules could face fines or prison.

The aim for this change in the law is to stop unregulated gambling sites trying to attract UK punters. Sites in the UK, Europe and other “white list” areas can advertise on TV, radio and in print media, subject to UK advertising rules.

To make it on to this list, companies must show they are subject to a suitably stringent regulatory regime. This includes measures on stopping children gambling, protecting vulnerable people, ensuring games are fair and keeping out organised crime

The new rules take effect on 1 September , when the Gambling Act comes fully into force.

The legislation also brings a relaxation of the current rules surrounding adverts for all types of gambling companies, including casinos and betting shops.

Gambling sites operating from the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Gibraltar, the Isle of Man, Alderney and other white-listed countries will still be allowed to advertise in the UK.

Littlewoodscasino.com, Interpoker.com, Betfred Casino and Poker are among the sites subject to the new advertising ban because they are all currently based in Caribbean islands.

The Gambling Commission has compiled figures that suggest the number of people going online to place a bet in the UK is increasing. Surveys carried out in the year to June 2007 indicated that 8.6% of adults had taken part in at least one form of “remote gambling” during the previous month, up from the 7.4% seen in 2006 polls.