News

Saturday, December 16, 2006
Racing consortium to bid for UK Tote

On Friday, 15 December, the UK government decided to invite a consortium of racing interests to make a final bid for the parimutuel betting operator. The consortium consists of the Race Course Association, the Racehorse Owners Association, the Racecourse Holdings Trust and current Tote management staff. The consortium has until 26 January 2007 to submit its bid.

The Tote assets include 540 high street betting shops, 59 betting shops on race courses and the pari-mutuel betting information infrastructure. The sale of the Tote has lead to some controversy, when the European competition authorities ruled out any possibility to sell the Tote to racing at too low a price. This would be qualified as “state aid” to the racing industry, according to them.