Tatts accepts, Betfair declines Victorian licence bid; incumbent TABCorp stays 'mum'
Online betting exchange operator, Betfair, says it hasn’t made a bid for TABCorp’s monopoly Victorian wagering licence. But the Tatts Group says it definitely has. And TABCorp claims it isn’t allowed to say whether it has lodged a bid to keep its licence.
That’s the upshot of a ring around of the main potential bidders following the 16th January deadline for responses to the Victorian government’s official call for registrations of interest.
Press reports suggest Greek company, Intralot, and Irish bookmaker, Paddy Power are likely to have also lodged bids.
But the UK owned Sportingbet - Australia’s largest corporately owned bookmaker - is reported not to have bothered.
That may not be too surprising, given the potential risks involved in applying for the new licence.
Bidders have had to promise not to make adverse public comments about competitors and/or the Victorian government.
A spokeswoman for the Victorian minister for Racing, Tony Robinson, said that the tender was explicit that the government
wouldn’t be identifying the companies that had responded to the ROI.
She said there was “no prohibition” on companies themselves, saying publicly that they’d made bid.
But even after being told that, TABCorp spokesman, Bruce Tobin, said “That’s not our reading of the documents”.
He said that as far as TABCorp is concerned, the documents prohibit the company from making any public comment about the tender process.
Michael Mangos, corporate affairs spokesman for the Tatts Group, operator of UniTAB (and therefore TABCorp’s main competitor),
took a different view.
“I can confirm that we have applied” he said.
He also confirmed the Tatts Group is a likely bidder for the Tasmanian Tote business.
The Tasmanian government recently announced it will soon be selling the Tote although the tender documents aren’t expected to be available for a few months yet.
“Depending on the conditions in the documents, we’re a likely bidder” said Mangos.
“We’re keen, and we have the capacity. We would definitely be interested” he said.
Tasmanian headquartered Betfair would also presumably be interested. Betfair spokesman, Hugh Taggart, said that the company would also be interested in the Victorian wagering licence.
However he explained (by email) that the company had decided not to bid.
He said the reason is because Betfair is really only interested in part of the licence, the part which will allow the new licence holder to operate
a betting exchange.
We didn’t submit an expression of interest for the Victorian wagering licence, as it is currently structured. Key points are as follows
- Our decision not to participate in the tender process should in no way be seen as a reluctance to adhere to proper regulatory standards.
- Betfair is committed to delivering our wagering products in a way that meets (or exceeds) the harm minimization regimes established under Victoria regulations and helps to secure the ongoing funding of Victoria’s racing and sports industries.
- We remain open to entering into a commercial arrangement with the successful bidder for the delivery of a betting exchange platform and the online distribution of other wagering products covered by the licence.
- In the event the Government decides to amend the scope of the licence so as to allow bids for single elements of it (for example, the right to operate a betting exchange system from within Victoria) then we would be interested in
participating in the amended bid process.
It is, of course, possible that the Victorian government will, given the apparently low number of responses to its tender, amend the scope of the licence.
But a media statement released by a Department of Justice spokesperson in response to our enquiries
gave no indication any amendment is likely.
Indeed, the statement said nothing new. It did, however, repeat that in the next stage the minister will invite selected applicants to lodge a detailed bid.
For what its worth, the statement (received by email) is reproduced as follows:
Response on wagering and betting licence ROI process and how many registrants have been received.
On 5 November 2008, the Victorian Government announced the commencement of Registrations of Interest for a Wagering and Betting Licence, as part of the restructure of the Victorian gambling industry.
The following information is taken from the ROI Notice:
To enable a decision to grant a Wagering and Betting Licence, the State is conducting a two stage Licensing Process comprising:
- an initial high-level test of capacity and capability (Registration of Interest stage); and
- a comparative assessment of the detailed proposals of Applicants (Invitation to Apply stage).
At the conclusion of the Registration of Interest stage, the Minister may invite one or more registrants to participate in the Invitation
to Apply stage and apply for a Licence.
The closing date for lodgment of Registrations of Interest was 16 January 2009.
The next stage of the process is the evaluation of the Registrations of Interest.
We are unable to disclose any further information on the Registrations of Interest process.
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