Betting Industry Summary Report

Betting Industry Summary Report

For Quarter ended March 2004

For the final quarter of the financial year 2003/2004, the industry recorded sales of $1.186B an increase of 1% on the $1.174B recorded for the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The promoter conducted betting on nineteen (19) local race meets and seventy-eight (78) days of simulcast races for the quarter. These operations generated sales of $731.674M a decrease of 1.16% on the $740.248M recorded for the corresponding quarter of 2003. Notwithstanding the decrease in overall sales, simulcast racing continued to do well and showed a 16.29% increase for the quarter with sales moving from $310.977M in the March quarter of 2003 to $361.642M for the quarter under review. In contrast, sales on local races were $ 370.032M a decrease of 12.90% below the $424.851M recorded for the quarter ended March 2003.

Bookmakers operations were conducted from nineteen (19) local race days and thirteen (13) weeks of overseas racing and generated overall sales of $454.563M an increase of 4.68% over the $434.249M recorded for the corresponding quarter of 2003. It should also be noted that sales on international sporting events increased by 78.82% moving from to $1.6M in 2003 to $2.9M for the quarter under review.

Further information on the performance of the promoter and bookmakers is provided in Tables 8 and 9 and complimented by Figure 4 which reinforces the promoter’s dominance within the industry with 61.68% of total sales.

Figure 5 (below) provides information on the performance of the promoter and bookmakers for the quarters ended March 2000 to 2004. Shown is the steady decline in sales by the promoter moving from $800.184M in 2001 to the current sales of $731.674M. On the converse bookmakers sales have fluctuated over the March quarters for the five (5) year period 2000 to 2004. The decline in sales for the quarter should be looked at against the background of the discontinuation of the Racing Pools game by the Promoter.

Tables 10 and 11 provide information on the sales performance of individual bookmakers. As in previous quarters Track Price Plus Limited, continues to be the islands leading bookmaker operating seventy-two (72) betting offices of which fifty-five (55) accepted bets on overseas races. The bookmaker reported total sales of $159.127M for the quarter under review while Folly’s Betting (1963) Limited the island smallest bookmaking entity, operating fourteen (14) betting offices recorded sales of $2.088M over the same period.

A comparative analysis of local sales for the quarter has revealed that Markham Betting Company Limited recorded the largest increase in sales when compared with the corresponding quarter of 2003. Local sales moved from $20.815M in the March quarter of 2003 to $34.284M for the quarter under review, representing a 64.71% increase. The large increase may be attributed to the bookmaker who along with Track Price Plus Limited accepted bets on local races beyond the prescribed opening hours on local race days. In contrast to the increase recorded by Markham Betting Company Limited, Track Price Plus Limited recorded an 8.79% decrease during the same period with reported sales of $65.885M compared to $72.238M for the corresponding quarter of 2003. The largest decrease in local sales was recorded by Ideal Betting Company Limited with sales of $10.569M a decrease of 35.97% when compared with the March quarter of 2003 during which sales were $16.506M. On the converse Ideal Betting Company Limited was responsible for the largest increase in overseas sales of 61.93% moving from $10.984M in the March quarter of 2003 to $17.788M for the quarter under review. The largest decline was recorded by Charles Off Betting Limited, with sales of $3.300M for the quarter under review moving from $5.606M for the corresponding quarter of 2003 a 41.13% decrease. Additional information can be gleaned from Figure 6.

Information on the net revenue generated by the players in the industry for the quarter under review is at Table 12 (below). The promoter realized net revenue of $233.715M or 31.94% of the $731.674M in reported sales. This represents a decrease of 4.39% below the $244.438M recorded for the March quarter of 2003. The net revenue recorded by bookmakers was $170.004M or 37.4% of reported sales and represents an increase of 6.85% on the $159.108M recorded for the corresponding quarter of 2003. Table 12 is complimented by Figure 7.

Table 13 provides information on the net revenue recorded by individual bookmakers. Cornwall Betting Services Limited with sales of $6.749M and payouts of $4.669M or 69.18% of sales recorded the highest payouts percentage. Folly’s Betting (1963) Limited with sales of $2.088M and payouts of $1.137M recorded the lowest payout percentage of 54.47%. Track Price Plus Limited recorded the highest net revenue of $57.939M, achieved from reported sales of $159.128M and payouts of $101.189M while Folly’s Betting (1963) Limited recorded the lowest net revenue of $1.032M. Additional statistics can be gleaned from Table 13 & is complimented by Figure 8.

Table 14 (below) provides information on taxes, duties and levies payable and paid by the Promoter and bookmakers. For the quarter under review, licensees paid over to Government $96.378M, this represents an increase of 23.13% on the $78.272M, paid for the corresponding quarter of 2003. Of the $96.378M paid to government $51.378M was paid by bookmakers, while the remaining $45M was paid by the promoter. It should also be noted that the amount paid exceeded that payable as amounts were brought forward from previous quarters.