Ladbrokes and Paddy Power were among the existing betting operators to express interest in acquiring the Tote today following confirmation that the state-owned business, which runs betting shops and on-course pool betting, will be sold along with a number of other public assets.
The Tote has been identified as a source of funds to help balance the government's books, along with the Dartford crossing, outstanding student debts and surplus real estate.
During a debate in the House of Commons yesterday, Liam Byrne, the chief secretary to the Treasury, confirmed that the Tote will be sold "when and where market conditions are right". However, no detailed schedule for the sale was laid out. Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats' shadow chancellor, who initiated the debate, said that the process had had "more false starts than any horse race".
A spokesman for Ladbrokes said today that "potentially we would be interested but it would depend on the structure of the deal", while a spokesman for Paddy Power said that the firm is "open-minded about anything that will help us grow as a company".
Paddy Power, which has a relatively small high-street presence in Britain, would offer fewer complications than Ladbrokes should the Government want a quick sale. In particular, Ladbrokes, which has more than 2,000 betting shops in Britain and Ireland, is close to the perceived ceiling for a single firm, and would attract attention from competition regulators if it attempted to acquire 540 more.
The Tote contributed £10.4m to racing last year, down from £11.9m the previous year, and is a significant source of funding for the sport.
"Racing is important for the Tote, and the Tote is important to racing, and we are committed to working with them to maximise the return to racing," Nic Coward, the chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority, said yesterday.
"The minister made a statement a while ago [that plans for an imminent sale of the Tote had been shelved] that was designed to give the Tote's leadership time to build the business.
"If the Government is now looking to do something different, we look forward to receiving the details and working with them."
Meanwhile, Dean McKeown, the jockey who was banned from racing for four years in October 2008 after being found to be in breach of the "non-trier" rules by the Southwell stewards, will begin a legal challenge to the BHA's punishment in the High Court in London tomorrow.
(Source: Guardian.co.uk)
