The betting exchange has submitted a parallel application to John Pandazopoulos for permission to publish Victorian race fields.
The legislative change to the Gambling Regulation Act allows for Racing Victoria to issue permission for its race fields to be published, but it also makes provision for the Government to exempt selected betting operators from submitting such application to the controlling body.
The intention is to prevent the controlling body from improperly using its permission granting powers to prevent a wagering operator it does not approve of from operating in Victoria.
Many Australian commentators suggested that the introduction of the application for publishing Victorian race fields was specifically intended to outlaw betting exchanges operating in Victoria. It is clear that Racing Victoria\’s refusal to issue even an interim approval to Betfair is exactly the situation which might prompt an application directly to the Minister.
In separate news, the Hong Kong Jockey Club has threatened to withdraw the rights of Australian TABs to bet on their events if the Tasmanian-licensed Betfair starts to operate on Hong Kong horse racing meetings.
Hong Kong Jockey Club racing Director Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges denied local media reports that his club could seek payment from the betting exchange in return for permission to use the Hong Kong fields.
Engelbrecht-Bresges said Hong Kong racing could suffer more from betting exchanges than in other countries because Chinese punters were “very sceptical” and exchanges would offer another avenue for that scepticism.
“We are extremely concerned that if you give people the opportunity to profit directly from backing a horse to lose, you threaten the whole principle of this sport.”
“In this culture, if you introduced betting exchanges you would destroy the sport.”
Elsewhere, Matchbook.com officially launched its online betting exchange, following its successful spring 2005 beta launch.
The Antiguan-licensed Matchbook already has more than 2,000 users which match $10 million in bets per week.
According to Tom Ramsey, Matchbook\’s Vice President of Development, American sports bettors are taking to exchange betting even faster than their European counterparts have to date.
“Exchange betting has already shaken up the $30-billion European sports-betting marketplace, and now the North American market is experiencing a similar transformation.”
“The North American marketplace has seen only one significant development in the past decade: the rise of online sportsbooks, which ended the monopoly held by Nevada-based and illegal bookmakers,” explained Ramsey.
“But online shops still book by the same old rules. As the Europeans have demonstrated, when people can bet directly with each other, betting markets become notably deeper and offer much tighter spreads,” he added.
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