While Betfair celebrates its fifth birthday, the owners of the Merrion Casino Club in Dublin, plan to take legal action against the world\’s leading betting exchange.
Despite neither Betfair nor MCC were licensed to operate a betting shop from MCC\’s premises, the MCC was running a members-only betting lounge.
Private members were betting on a single Betfair account. They were lodging money before racing and were paid cash at the close of business, circumventing the usual Betfair channels which are on a strict on-account basis.
Both sides confirmed the controversial relationship:
Betfair said it was an experiment, “nothing more than a promotional tool and it has been terminated as it was only designed to run for a limited period.”
MCC manager Charles Harbourn said he is constrained from commenting “as the matter is to be the subject of legal action by us.”
Insiders believe that the Betfair/MCC arrangement was turning over €1m a month and that Betfair withdrew the facility after a dispute over the percentage retained by MCC.
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