Betfred is the Winning Bidder for the Tote
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Betfred is the winning bidder for the Tote
3 June 2011
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UK-based bookie Betfred has been chosen to buy the Tote after an auction procedure that began in November.
BBC service editor Robert Peston said Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt had actually chosen Betfred although the bet9ja's welcome offer had not been finished, with some technicalities still being figured out.
The price is not yet known but Betfred is thought to have bid about ₤ 200m.
Half of the cost will go to the yohaig code racing industry and racing charities, and the majority of the yohaig code rest will go to the federal government.
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The racing industry might be dissatisfied, because it was understood to have preferred the competing bid from SIP, a consortium led by British Airways chairman Martin Broughton.
Successive federal governments have actually been trying to privatise the Tote for about 14 years, but have actually never ever come this near doing so.
The government is hoping that the deal will not fall nasty of EU state aid rules or be overturned by a judicial evaluation.
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Jockey opposition
The Tote was established 83 years ago to bet9ja's welcome offer a safe house for punters, managed by the state, and beyond the reach of prohibited bookmakers.
It takes pleasure in a monopoly of horse race in exchange for an assurance that money was pumped back into the sport.
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The Tote is based in Wigan, with more than 4,000 personnel, and currently injects half its revenues into racing.
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Last year, Chancellor George Osborne guaranteed to secure value for taxpayers while acknowledging the support the Tote offered to the market.
The Tote gave nearly ₤ 19m to horse racing in 2010.
Efforts over the previous 3 years to sell the Tote hit issues, and the federal government faces getting a lower rate than the yohaig code ₤ 400m mooted in 2007.
The Jockey Club opposes the sale and wants the Tote to remain independent.
The Tote has 517 High Street betting shops and the monopoly to run pool betting online and at 60 racecourses in the UK.
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