Evening Standard (London): Racing aims to boost its income with new website

RACING went into self-help mode today with a major new internet gambling platform designed to maintain its dwindling share of an ever growing gambling market.

London's Kingsway Hall Hotel was the venue for a press conference to explain the aims of Race-O, a one-stop betting website which will put 20 per cent of its net revenue back into racing.

Former Tote and Betdaq director Rob Hartnett is the chief executive of the new venture, which will launch this summer with the aim of "grabbing the reins back for racing and bringing it to the centre stage of a gambling industry that is changing daily."

Cynics will argue that the move smacks of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted given that the British Horseracing Board is having to make Pounds 8.7m of cuts in 2005 after the collapse of its data rights agreement.

However, Hartnett is looking to the long-term for a site which will give punters the chance to bet on assorted sports plus roulette, poker and a brand new online superbet aimed at firing the imagination of those who dream about winning a life-changing sum for loose change.

The venture has attracted support and investment from leading industry figures including the Jockey Club's senior steward Julian Richmond-Watson, Cheveley Park Stud owner Patricia Thompson and Channel 4 pundit Jim McGrath.

No guarantees exist in an already crowded and fiercely competitive betting market, but Hartnett has faith in the concept and a planned superbet "which is likely to centre around finding the winners of eight Saturday races with a Pounds 2 unit stake and consolation prizes for those who hit the crossbar."

The idea of a superbet creating millionaires on a regular basis has been kicked around in racing for the best part of 20 years.

The Tote jackpot never achieved it and nor has its successor the Scoop6, while the rise of Camelot in the last decade means millions of occasional punters look no further than the National Lottery in a bid to win big for small stakes.

However, Hartnett is adamant that racing remains a suitable vehicle for a superbet and feels the concept could go global over time.

"The demand for this type of bet within racing has yet to be satisfied, but we believe this will achieve that and help raise the profile of racing to new heights," he said.

"The British market will be the first to sample this new bet type, though plans are already advanced for rolling it out to other territories and creating the world's first truly global wagering system."