SYMPOSIUM: Betfair exec.. "Exchange format is U.S. future"

[Kasept]

Betfair lobbies for U.S. allies
By Matt Hegarty

http://www.drf.com/news/article/109426.html

TUCSON, Ariz. - The world of entertainment has changed rapidly in the last 15 years, and the racing industry will need to adopt new betting models to compete or face a slow death, the chief executive of the British bet-matching company Betfair told the racing industry during Tuesday's opening session of the University of Arizona Symposium on Racing and Gaming here.

Gerard Cunningham, the U.S. representative for Betfair, said that younger generations have grown up in a world in which data-rich entertainment options and social networks are de rigueur, a dynamic that he said threatened racing's current business model. In addition, Cunningham said, other gambling options such as slot machines and poker give bettors a bigger bang for the buck, allowing those games to steal market share from racing by merely tapping bettors out over a longer haul.

Cunningham then invited racing industry officials to meet with him to discuss the legalization of betting exchanges, a type of market-based betting pioneered by Betfair that allows customers to bet against each other. Betting exchanges are illegal in the U.S. because the government believes that they allow customers to act as bookmakers.

"My concern is that if we don't do this, I don't know what the future looks like for us in racing," Cunningham said.

The comments underlined Betfair's efforts to ally the U.S. racing industry to its cause so that it can go hand-in-hand with horsemen and racetracks to lobby for the legalization of betting exchanges. Earlier this year, as part of that effort, Betfair purchased the account-wagering company TVG, giving the company a U.S. foothold for its operations.