Racing board betting on shakeup
The TAB will overhaul its fixed-odds betting service so it will provide a similar experience to the likes of overseas giants Betfair and Ladbrokes.
The move is designed to reverse a flow of punters to overseas websites.
Chief executive John Allen said the New Zealand Racing Board (NZRB), which runs the TAB, had agreed to licence a fixed-odds betting platform supplied by Britain’s Openbet.
That was after first settling on that as a likely option in February.
It will also partner with giant Irish bookie Paddy Power Betfair, which will set the odds that the TAB quotes for most international events.
Allen said the change would cost about $30 million to $35m but should pay for itself in just over three years.
The new fixed-odds service is due to launch in August 2018. Punters would see ‘‘quite a lot’’ that was different, including a much wider and ‘‘more competitive’’ range of betting products, Allen said.
The switch will mean the TAB will be able to offer thousands more bets. Allen said it would also mean it could offer more live betting options for longer periods during sporting fixtures.
‘‘At the moment, because we do everything manually, we have to suspend betting to change the odds as things occur.’’
Another benefit for punters will be more ways for them to withdraw cash from their accounts.
‘‘We are going to adopt the Openbet web solution and the Openbet app and that will see a significant benefit in the way in which products are presented.’’
The main financial benefit for the TAB will come from calculating odds automatically, rather than manually.
That will reduce the opportunity for foreign punters to engage in ‘‘arbitrage’’ to take advantage of TAB mispricing.
Although it was a more minor consideration, Allen said the NZRB also expected cost savings of about $1.3m a year, the bulk of which would be from labour savings.
The NZRB is sufficiently confident about the benefits of the investment that it has agreed to increase the payout that it will make to the racing industry over the next two years by $24m.
Even though it will be rebadging Openbet, the TAB would still be able to add New Zealand events to its website and would have overall control over odds pricing, Allen said.