Wednesday, April 7, 2004
BETFAIR RESPONSE TO REPORT ON DRAFT GAMBLING BILL
Joint Scrutiny Committee chairman John Greenway today recognised that exchanges are a good thing [and] must not be forced abroad by unnecessary regulation'.
Betfair welcomed that view as the Committee's report into the Draft Gambling Bill was published. Betfair also noted that the Committee accepted the great benefits that betting exchanges are delivering for punters and sporting regulatory bodies.
However, the leading betting exchange questioned the logic and workability of seeking to impose thresholds above which its customers might require some form of registration for integrity purposes, or licensing and taxation, on the grounds that they are acting as "de facto bookmakers", because they are not. Betting exchange users are no different from any other punters, and no British punters are currently licensed or regulated.
Imposing thresholds on betting exchange punters would discriminate against one section of the betting public: targeting those who bet on outcomes not to happen is no more logical than targeting those who bet on outcomes to happen, since the two are different sides of the same coin. It would also create bureaucracy for one set of operators, while doing nothing to further the licensing objectives of protecting the vulnerable, keeping crime out of sport, and ensuring fairness to the consumer.
Moreover, requiring the registration of certain betting exchange customers would bring no more information about those customers than is already known to the betting exchange operator. The audit trail of an exchange allows operators of exchanges - and by extension the sports regulators and administrative bodies with which they share information - to know in full what bets are placed, when, by whom, in what size, with what funds, and with what counterparty. Betfair believes that the best way to address integrity risks is to impose these policies on all bookmakers, not to introduce a punter registration system based on arbitrary and easily side-stepped criteria.
Betfair will continue, as it has over the last eighteen months, to work with DCMS, as recommended by the Committee. It will seek to ensure that the three pillars of gambling regulation are firmly set in place, without the introduction either of unnecessary bureaucracy, or of policies which are discriminatory to its customers. It wholly supports the objectives of government, and the Committee's contribution to the process of modernising the existing current gambling laws.
BETDAQ REACTION TO THE REPORT OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON THE DRAFT GAMBLING BILL
BETDAQ applauds the Joint Committee on its assimilation of the vast quantities of complex information with which it has been presented in relation to betting exchanges.
Its commendation of our shrewd business model and recognition that increasing our regulatory burden is unnecessary are particularly welcome.
We are disappointed however by the Joint Committee's comments on the subject of non-recreational layers. We strongly share the DCMS' original view that such a defined category was neither necessary nor workable in legislation.
While feeling somewhat caught up in a commercial Groundhog Day scenario, we nevertheless accept the recommendation that we discuss this further, perhaps with more reason and less grandstanding on all sides than has previously been the case.
If the Joint Committee, at the suggestion of the bookmakers believes there is a workable threshold to define non-recreational betting, then surely it will deem it to be correct to apply it across all sectors of the industry.
To make things interesting as we debate the subject again, perhaps we could look at how traditional bookmakers might be encouraged to use already available EPOS equipment to tag each bet to an individual in the same way that BETDAQ does. By so doing, we may yet remove a genuine hole in the Bill's well intentioned desire to aid integrity, and to draw down revenue on a fair and equitable basis.
On the question of integrity, we welcome the Committee's exhortation that the bill enabling the Gambling Commission be introduced quickly, but in the meantime will continue to work closely with the Jockey Club in pointing out areas and incidents of possible concern.
Ours is a disruptive technology. One which poses, in the words of the Joint Committee, a serious challenge to the business model of the existing bookmaking industry. As a result of its genuine appeal to the betting public, it has been warmly welcomed by bettors in Britain and around the world.
We believe that in many ways the BETDAQ service is of benefit to bookmakers. Nevertheless we accept the obvious truth that the big corporate organisations do not like us because of our commercial threat.
They are tenacious and intelligent, and in the case of their opposition to exchanges, very determined.
Today's report and its recommendations to join further debate will see us lock horns once more, but we believe that our argument in favour of the free market will win out again.
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