SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Tabcorp is part of a 3-way race for a wagering deal with New Zealand’s TAB, as the Australian company looks to push into overseas markets and diversify its earnings.
NZRB chief executive John Allen commented: “The New Zealand Racing Board is currently in discussions with three organisations, of which Tabcorp is one, to explore options to automate our fixed-odds betting operation. There are no plans to privatise the TAB.”
Sources close to the process said the other bidders could include Australia’s Tatts Group and two British corporate bookmakers: Paddy Power, which operates the fast-growing Sportsbet business in Australia, and William Hill, which already operates the fixed-odds business for West Australia’s TAB
The NZRB have been open to ‘outsourcing or partnering’, to combat rising costs and overseas competitors. It is understood they have turned to the bidders to improve its market pricing and better manage yields as more punters switch to fixed-odds betting.
A NZRB statement for 2016-18 said: “Changing customer preferences to more fixed-odds betting and lower-margin sports betting products has seen an impact on net profit and as more customers move to digital channels, investment in NZRB’s technical abilities is required to remain competitive.”
Part of Tabcorp’s reasoning behind such a partnership would be to put itself in prime position to acquire the NZ TAB should the government there decide to privatise the monopoly operator.
However a spokesman for Racing Minister Nathan Guy said there were no plans to privatise the TAB. He said that the government had instead been consulting on law changes that would reinforce the TAB’s role as a “statutory betting monopoly”.
Tabcorp, which is valued at A$3.6 billion (NZ$3.8b), employs more than 3000 staff and has been broadcasting New Zealand racing since 2001. More than 165,000 New Zealanders have TAB accounts and the group has 670 retail outlets across the country.
