South African horseracing and tote betting company Phumelela has reached a milestone in its march to modernise the tote betting world by teaming up with trail-blazing tote integrator, i-neda.
The will offer previously unavailable domestic bets to their international clientele. The new systems will offer connectivity from Phumelela Gold Enterprise’s (PGE) tote hub on the Isle of Man to any tote integrated to i-neda’s Opentote system, including the UK Tote’s multi-leg bets.
Rian du Plessis, Group CEO of Phumelela, said: “One of the major barriers to the growth of international tote betting over the last few years has been the inability of a system in one country to talk fully to one in another part of the world. This has been due to systems growing in isolation from each other. We at PGE are therefore delighted to have found a company in i-neda, which shares our vision of fully commingled international betting.”
The existing method of connecting can have limitations and up to now PGE was only able to offer single-leg bets into the UK Tote such as Win, Place, Swinger, Exacta and Trifecta. With the new development PGE can now offer multi-leg bets to its international customers as well.
The first beneficiary of the new system is Equiniela, the Andalucían tote operator that trades as Win Sports Bars. Equiniela has been passing bets on UK, Irish, Swedish and South African racing back to domestic totes for a number of years. The new system will offer their customers in Spain the full range of UK Tote bets.
For Equiniela, bets pass through a PC-based system, managed by PGE. Until now these PC terminals have provided a cost-effective solution to tote betting but with a limited range of bet types. As part of this development, technically they will now have access to all pools in the UK, Ireland and Sweden.
This PC terminal is already employed in Brazil as well as Andalucía, but PGE is confident that there will be further interest from many of its UK-racing customers situated in more than 40 countries. PGE, which acts as the international agent for Racing UK, the Dubai International Racing Carnival and Singapore Turf Club, now has the ability to access all pools connected to i-neda’s Open Tote system.
Ray Sharman, Director of Equiniela, said: “We have been connected for basic bets for some time, but this new solution now gives our customers the chance to bet into the UK Tote’s most popular exotic pools, like Placepots and Jackpots. Expanding the service has all gone smoothly, and I am sure it will be greeted with significant player demand.”
Phumelela CEO Rian du Plessis added: “We invested in i-neda’s Open Tote service to substantially expand our ability to commingle multi-leg pools. This is important for all our international customers and should specifically benefit our partnership with UK racing.”
Ben Pinnick, i-neda MD, commented: “OpenTote is a universal tote connectivity service. Phumelela invested in our solution to ensure tote connectivity was faster, easier and cheaper for their clients. We are very happy that in such a short time we have made a real difference and that the UK Tote and UK racing will see the benefit in their growing pools.”
Richard FitzGerald, CEO of RMG, endorsed the investment, saying: “International pool contributions are very important to the future of UK racing and offer increased value for UK-based punters. Betting patterns and opinions vary around the world and increased commingling will bring increased pool liquidity and better dividends.”
For more information contact Phill Adams: Phill.Adams@PGInternational.co.uk
About Phumelela Gold Enterprises (PGE)
www.tabonline.co.za
:
> Phumelela Gold Enterprises (PGE) is a joint venture between South African horseracing and tote betting operators Phumelela and Gold Circle. PGE is managed by JSE-listed Phumelela and owns the domestic and international broadcast and information rights to South African horseracing. PGE also sets fixtures for all South African racecourses and owns and manages Tellytrack, South Africa's domestic horseracing TV channel.
> PGE has acquired the worldwide betting-related broadcast rights to 30 of the UK's 60 racecourses (the Racing UK rights), including 10 of the 12 "Super" tracks from Racing UK (RUK).
> PGE, in partnership with Racing UK and the UK Tote (Totesport), offers a daily racing-betting package to the global market on South African-based TV channel Racing International, which is beamed via satellite across six continents.
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