SBC News Phumelela Gaming taken to South African court over unfair pricing

Phumelela Gaming taken to South African court over unfair pricing

rian101
Rian Du Plessis

Phumelela Gaming and Leisure Ltd South Africa’s biggest racetrack owners, have been taken to court over unfair increases in racetrack fees operations and track broadcasting.

South African news sources report that 37 regional bookmakers, mostly operating from the Gauteng province, have filed against the Johannesburg racetrack operator. Phumelela Gaming and Leisure Ltd increased the price to purchase live broadcasts of their track meets by 3% per month.

The majority of South African bookmakers operate TellyTrack live broadcast services. The racetrack broadcaster is 61% co-owned by Phumelela Gaming, who argue that the service has been under charged as the broadcaster has to supply regional and international races to bookmakers.

Phumelela Gaming’s CEO Rian Du Plessis commented on the matter “It’s a very valuable product, that’s why we are now charging a decent price. The increase in fees were long overdue.”

Regional  bookmakers argue that the price hikes aim to have a detrimental effect on their operations, and that Phumelela Gaming aim is to disrupt independent bookmakers by pricing them out of the market, and making more favorable conditions for Phumelela Gaming associated bookmakers and racetracks.

Prean Naidu, general manager of Top Bet South Africa, operator of thirteen bookmakers in Gauteng and Limpopo provinces commented: “Price hikes will affect our business and the South African racing industry in general. With this system in place, we are going to lose at the end of the day”.

Phumelela, which owns and manages five of the nine racing tracks in South Africa, said net income for the six months through January rose 32 percent to 51.7 million rand. Revenue rose 19 percent to 587 million rand, according to a statement today.

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