Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) has admitted there will be lay-offs across at Tote Ireland’s board after the seven-year deal with the British Tote.
The agreement between the UK Tote Group and Tote Ireland has been announced as an alliance, with HRI set to keep the full ownership of its subsidiary Tote Ireland. For several months, there had been ongoing rumours that the pool betting business, which has been experiencing massive falls in its turnover over the last few years, might be sold, either partially or in full.
However, yesterday a joint-service deal aimed at bringing the UK Tote’s expertise to the off-course product of Irish Tote was confirmed. Brian Kavanagh, a chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland said that the online operations and the call centre, which are the off-course element of the company, are set to be operated through the UK Tote Group. On the other hand, the on-course element of the business is set to be run through Tote Ireland, with all aspects of it set to be merged into the company’s one pool.
Mr Kavanagh further noted that 17 full-time workers are employed by Tote Ireland, along with more than 400 casual on-course workers. He, however, did not comment on the number of jobs that might be lost but confirmed that a new operating model would be used, with some downsizing of the board expected.
Overall Tote Betting Has Experienced Significant Decline in Recent Years
Mr Kavanagh further noted that in a year’s time, the Tote would be quite different than it is now as far as its internal structure is concerned, despite it would look pretty much the same to customers. He said that the group would also feature new product offerings and increased liquidity.
The last few years have seen a significant decline in Tote betting, which has also faced some difficulties in a gambling landscape that has been pretty much changed by new forms of gambling such as online betting.
In 2018, the overall Tote betting declined by one-third to €69.2 million. One of the main reasons for the significant fall was a slide in global pool betting. The company also registered a 7.7% fall in its on-course turnover to €10.7 million only. In 2019, the overall Tote betting fell once again, this time by 13% to €60.2 million.
According to Mr Kavanagh, a small organisation like Tote operating in a betting market as open as the one of Ireland would most likely struggle to remain a worthy rival of bigger companies. He also highlighted the fact that the market is moving towards consolidation not only in Ireland and the UK but also worldwide, mainly to give access to new product development, technology, marketing resources, etc.
As revealed by Nick Hartery, the chairman of HRI, the newly-announced alliance would be beneficial for the Tote, as it would allow it to enhance and bolster its on-course presence on the territory of Ireland.
- Author
Olivia Cole
