“Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend.” In other words, don’t lend money to friends or borrow from them, because often both money and friends are lost.
SA horseracing is once again at a crossroad. This time decisions are firmly out of the usual hands, and rules will dictate what happens next.
Simply, the people who lent money to racing will have the deciding vote. This time the money won’t be lost.
Tony Mincione writes that the Business Rescue procedure is clearly mapped out in the Companies Act of 2008 and the two main proposals will be put to the creditors for a vote on which they will accept on the first day of spring- less than a week from now.
Of the claims of R1,167 million the Rescue plan acknowledges R711 500 000 to be in the pool of debt eligible to vote. That means that the top 6 creditors, if they act together, have a decisive (literally!) 77% of the total vote.
In a gesture of enormous belief in the sport of horseracing, MOD (basically the ladies of the Oppenheimer family) stepped up to save the industry from collapse for everyone.
After a long time – but in reality only weeks – a lifesaving deal was on the table.
The dust was just settling when the office of John Evans published a new offer from the famous BETFRED operation, headquartered in the UK right between Liverpool and Manchester.
To those involved in the racing game, MOD is a very trusted brand. As good as it gets with a pedigree like a Thoroughbred. But all this is not their business, this is their passion. Just how far should they go?
All we really know about Betfred is what can be found on the internet as well as articles from a somewhat inflammatory British press.
As of January 2020, Betfred operated over 1550 shops throughout the United Kingdom. British bookmakers are a competitive bunch and tempered by a hard nosed gambling British public. None of it for the faint hearted.
The short of it is BETFRED are in the business of gambling. They have shown interest in this sort of thing before when they bought the UK tote in 2011 in a long auction process in a reportedly “closely fought contest”.
Game? Betfair’s Fred Done – in a file shot with Sir Alex Ferguson
At the time Betfred’s executive chairman, Fred Done, said in a statement: “Buying the Tote has been an ambition for years, so I am absolutely delighted.
Betfred owned the UK tote monopoly for seven years and so presumably has dealt with the regulatory aspects of racing more than most. The exclusive licence ran out in 2018.
If there is any ‘back channeling’ to be done by Betfred in their bid, Investec and RMB together have 44%, and with Gold Circle it’s 54%. That’s almost 75% of the required muscle.
PGI (which is 50% Phumelela, so who votes that?) is 11%, and MOD themselves are 8%. The straw that broke the camel’s back, Supabets, are 3.7% and could possibly tip the 75% balancing bar one way or the other.
MOD represents that new broom everyone in racing seems to want.
Betfred could be a new broom too, but offers a more alien change than most people might want in one go.
Maybe MOD was the lifeline racing (more than) desperately needed, and unintentionally orchestrated a bigger offer via Betfred than anyone would have foreseen 8 weeks ago?
The most alarming aspect of the news is the apparent joy of the previous regime at their seemingly anticipated arrival of the new offer.
The people who managed the good ship Phumelela onto the rocks for hundred of millions in salaries, shares and perks, are just too happy. It begs the question of what’s in it for them?
And what do the passengers think about the possibility that the previously drunken crew may be back at the helm “soon”?
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