Betfair hits back at 'hypocrites'

INTERNET gambling group Betfair has launched a vigorous defence of its role in the recent flurry of scandals to hit horse racing.

In the run-up to today's Cheltenham Festival, racing has been rocked by allegations of race fixing by jockeys and dubious betting by a trainer.

Powerful forces in racing have blamed online exchanges for tempting wrongdoers because they allow people to bet against horses winning.

However, Betfair says recent publicity about betting exchanges contained 'a great deal of misinformation', adding that it wants to set the record straight after 'a great deal of anti-betting exchange press'.

The British Horseracing Board has demanded a clampdown on betting exchanges that could at best drive market leader Betfair offshore and at worst bring about its demise.

It says big gamblers who regularly lay bets on exchanges should be subject to strict licensing. Betfair claims this would tie up its regular customers in red tape and drive them to unregulated offshore rivals.

'The arguments put forward by Betfair's opponents are commercial in background and hypocritical in nature,' says the company. 'They are designed to put restrictions on betting exchanges, yet offer no compensatory safeguards to the public (such as improving their own transparency), or positives for the sports or racing industries.

'The claims of the traditional bookmakers to uphold the integrity of sport are contradicted by their unwillingness over a 40-year period to offer information to the Jockey Club to assist the investigation of countless betting scandals.'

Betfair stresses its tip-off about irregular betting activity was the trigger for the Jockey Club's investigations. Its electronic credit-card betting enables Betfair to track dodgy practices with pinpoint precision.

Betfair has written to MP John Greenway, chairman of the Parliamentary committee scrutinising the Gambling Bill, expressing its concerns. In the letter, the firm claims racing scandals are not new and are not created by exchanges.

The letter states: 'The recent controversies are important issues for racing, but are being deflected on to betting exchanges because it suits the commercially-motivated agenda of some to do so.'

Greenway acknowledges this. He says: 'Skulduggery is not new. It didn't start with exchanges. Better to have them onshore than to send them offshore.'

The committee reports to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in two weeks.