Hollywood bail out Gold Circle

Bob Brogan wrote: ROB , Your heads up your erse, If you think Bookmakers rise is down to racing and the Open Bet.

And all the Big bookmakers would, in a flash, give up the open bet to a proper commission share.

I stopped using Tab simply because their service was shocking- HW and BetX made more sense from withdrawals to in-shop experience - I tried for decades to get those on the inside to improve TAB branches and the very basic help line but they did not care or try and that's the reason it all went bang because nobody cared about the customer but rather about a group of sinister self-serving shareholders that had a particular dislike for tote punters(daddy issues Marcus?)- The OPEN BET has been used for ages and even recently as a deflection by those in power that have and had alternate agendas - Who cares about the open bet when you get mugged outside a TAB - I felt safe going into HW branches - clean everything yet the local TAB is a dirty unsafe place where the poor punters and staff try their best to get through a day without mishap.

Bob Brogan wrote: ROB , Your heads up your erse, If you think Bookmakers rise is down to racing and the Open Bet.

And all the Big bookmakers would, in a flash, give up the open bet to a proper commission share.

Massive contribution to Hollywood coffers, as they grabbed the majority of online tote punters back in the days of Hollybucks.

The migration of these ex-tote players was so big that they had to dump the Hollybucks product as their servers at the time could not cope with the mainly open bet players migrating to their online betting platform.

Their outlets and service was and still is by far more attractive to punters and hence the rapid rise to be top of the pile, other late comers are merely trying to emulate what they started and trying to dig out a share of the punters pie.

It is now far too late for operators to even attempt trying to cut them in to any % of now depreciating pools. Racing is now a very small pie with now many mouths to feed.

WTF have Hollybucks got to do with it?

Can guarantee you that all the big bookies would bite the hands of a TOTE exotics deals

And it is 1million percent not too late!

The Hollybucks a great marketing tool was used to lure online punters as it was free eventually it was taking up too much bandwidth on servers and they had to dump it to accommodate the massive migration of punters to their online betting platform.

Winners of these competitions were given as prizes cash bonus's to use on Hollywood online account betting platform. I won a few of these and opened an account to play the money value prizes. However the systems were slow and fraught with problems because of the shared bandwidth. Eventually the freebie had to go to make way for the betting platform.

HOLLYWOODBETS TO THE RESCUE


After a tumultuous week of outspoken challenges against the Special Resolutions brought by the Gold Circle Board before their Members, the 4 motions failed narrowly to receive the 75% required, achieving support of between 70-72% for each vote.

Business rescue was a looming threat for the Operator and would have been the likely course of action had it not been for the generosity of Hollywoodbets to offer an unsecured loan of R40m to Gold Circle. "It would have been a tragedy for all the stakeholders if racing had to stop when the company went into business rescue, said Michel Nairac, CEO of Gold Circle. He continued "I am relieved that the stakeholders who depend on racing can continue to benefit from it. Ï am grateful to Hollywoodbets that racing will continue uninterrupted until the next Special General Meeting can be convened".

Speaking on behalf of the Hollywood Sportsbook Group, Basil Thomas said “It is no secret how difficult things have been for stakeholders in the horse racing industry over the past few months. Severe hardship and real anxiety has been experienced by participants, that extend way beyond Gold Circle Racing Club. Grooms, Trainers, Jockeys, Breeders, Owners, Tote Agents, Suppliers…the list is endless.

“So much good work has been done to get horses back on the track. In short, it would have been a disaster if racing had once again been interrupted for an extended period. The KZN Winter/Champions Season is the flagship of the national racing calendar. For it to not be completed would be the unnecessary raising of the white flag.

“Hollywoodbets is averse to ‘racing politics’. We are not picking a side and we have no desire to be caught in the middle. We have one agenda – that is to apply our resources – financial and human, to supporting Gold Circle in its quest to return to profitability. The natural consequence of that objective, if successful, will be a stronger and sustainable future for KZN Racing. The events of the past week could well have resulted in unintended or unanticipated consequences. We are pleased that such consequences have been averted.”

I agree Hollywood are a big organisation, plus an asset to horse racing. All i can say is well done. Hopefully the ship is moving in the right direction for our beloved sport.

Hollywood know how to run a business properly. Let them take over racing with Govt BEE well controlled, let the Govt can the open bet and lets go forward man. The way it is now is unsustainable, too many loans all over the show.