Ladbrokes launch Bet British advertising campaign
March 23, 2009 by mbates
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.
Victor Chandler push petition against BBC horseracing proposal
March 17, 2009 by mbates
Just ten years ago the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was covering 79 days of horseracing annually, by 2009 this figure has been reduced to just 27 and in 2010 the BBC plans to show just 14 days. If public support for more days is highlighted then the BBC would have to honour its obligations as a public service broadcaster.
By reducing the terrestrial television exposure of hose racing it will only expedite the end of the horse racing industry which could jeopardise over 20,000 jobs and the tax contributing by the industry of an estimated £280 million per year.
Victor Chandler said of the proposals “BBC TV is looking to drastically cut the amount of racing it covers from 2010. This is a terrible thing for Horse Racing and I am kindly asking all my customers to please sign the petition.”
Click here to go to the Victor Chandler website and sign the petition.
Match fixing at the Maplin UK Championship?
December 16, 2008 by mbates
An unusual amount of bets on the first round match of the Maplin UK Championship in Telford had been taken on the match between Stephen Maguire and Jamie Burnett this prompted bookmakers to suspend betting amidst fears of possible match fixing.
A majority of bookmakers had suspended betting on the match 24 hours before the match took place due to the high quantity of bets that were placed on Maguire, the 2004 UK champion, to beat Burnett, a qualifier, 9-3, as the final score.
Cliff Wilds, head of sport for UK betting company Victor Chandler said “When you get accounts opened in Glasgow to bet frame scores, alarm bells go off. We took no money on 9-2 or 9-4 and that set off alarm bells as well. We suspended betting four days ago“. Burnett is from Hamilton, Maguire comes from the Milton district of Glasgow.
Burnett was beaten 9-3 and the Scot missed a black in the 12th frame which would have made it 8-4, he denies any wrongdoing
Victor Chandler scales down racecourse betting
September 11, 2008 by mbates
Victor Chandler have this week scaled back there onsite racecourse betting as part of a major restructure of their racecourse betting. The money is according to Victor Chandler no longer there as punters are saving on travel costs and use the traditional companies’ online equivalent and betting exchanges such as Betfair instead.
On track bookies are now having to rely more on the high days such as the Grand National and other festivals as well as holidays to ensure their survival, one on track bookie commented “I’d like to think things have reached rock bottom, but I don’t think they have. With the economic situation, it’s going to be a rough 12 to 18 months. In another five years, I’d think there might be no more than 50% of the bookmakers who were here three years ago.“
