Eclipsed

L.D Nathan merger and leadership of Lion Nathan by Peter Cooper have lead to these agreements within the Racing industry as was Lions intent for a number of years prior.They wanted the money from alcohol sales.Hence also only Oasis drinks as an alternative.He was at the helm of Lion breweries era late 1990's early 2000's. What a load of utter shyte. Peter Cooper was briefly part of Lion Nathan following Lion and L D Nathan completing a controversial deal in 1988. The deal allowed Douglas Myers to get Heineken out of its shareholding in Lion at that time. Cooper exited Lion Nathan very soon after this, moving to the USA with his family. The deal saw Lion Nathan with the NZ bottling and distribution rights of Coca-Cola (Oasis) who were filthy as Kevin Roberts, the then COO of Lion was a Pepsi man. Lion sold this back to Coca-Cola at a whopping 18x EBITDA and then took on Pepsi in Australia and New Zealand. The deal also saw Deka (renamed from many of the Nathans general merchandise stores) and also Big Fresh become a part of the Lion group. Any connection to this merger having anything to do with the racing industry is pure and absolute fantasy.

Some curious numbers in this Press Release below from NZGR today. Entain contracted the introduction of geo-fencing at $100m (as a one-off payment) so if it's correct that Entain,ongoing will receive $75m extra a year. That's a good thing for NZTR and HRNZ as Entain's net profit will grow and the trickle down impact is that in year 6 once the guaranteed funding level expires,the TAB will receive 50% of Entain's profit and that, in turn, will feed through to the 2 remaining codes. No doubt this new committee will be re-jigging their forecasts to include both of these moves..... New analysis details Government annual gift of $119m to multinational gambling company Greyhound Racing New Zealand has released new analysis detailing the extent to which the Government is financially supporting a multinational gambling giant. It comes as the Government is expected this week to pass the Racing Industry Amendment Bill into law, creating a digital monopoly on gambling for Entain. The analysis, prepared by an independent consultant, details the financial help required for Entain to meet its funding guarantee of $150m per year to the racing industry. The funding guarantee, combined with a guarantee to retain approximately 450 TAB staff until June 2025, were set under the terms of the agreement when the TAB’s betting business was outsourced to Entain in 2023. The analysis estimates in dollar terms the value of the Government’s support to bail out Entain so it can limit its losses in meeting the terms of its deal until 2029. The passage of legislation to block New Zealanders from gambling offshore will boost Entain annual revenues by at least $75m per year. The retention of gambling on Australian greyhounds after the ban comes into effect, will preserve Entain gross betting revenues of approximately $44m per year. Without these actions by the Government, Entain would be faced with an estimated revenue deficit of $26m per year. Greyhound Racing New Zealand CEO Edward Rennell said: “The Government has chosen to bail out a multinational gambling company at the expense of ordinary Kiwis. “It will shamelessly pass laws and create digital monopolies so Entain can meet its funding guarantees and obligations to private shareholders. “Entain won’t need to compete to win new revenue as it was brought in to do. It will be gifted it by banning Kiwis from using non-Entain betting providers and retaining gambling on Australian greyhound racing. “The decision to keep taking money from Australian greyhound races, but strip thousands of regional Kiwis of their livelihoods and passion, is depressingly cynical and hypocritical. “Gross income of $44 million dollars each year will now be sliced up between the Government, Entain and the equine codes and not go to the thousands of trainers, owners, and breeders involved in greyhound racing. “It’s a reverse Robin Hood. The Government is taking money from the provinces to save face on a bad deal and keep the money flowing into Entain, thoroughbred and harness racing.”

CEO of the NZRB from 2016 through to 2019. ( Prior to this a failed stint as CE at MFAT where he was badly out of his depth.) Giif of the gab throughout, in all roles. As the CEO of the NZRB he signed off on the seriously flawed contract to replace the outdated Jetbet system - Paddy Power/Betfair were selected. The initial cost blew out to near the $50m mark, the project ran well over time and it led for the first time ever, the NZRB going into debt to pay for it all. So the NZRB was sort of insolvent albeit government guarantees helped. Within the new betting platform was an ongoing locked in 5 year 'support' deal at what was speculated at $18m a year. The whole shebang cost over $100m and never got off the runway. Some may recall NZTR asking the serious question of why try and build a new platform when there are others up and running? It was an ego contest between Allan and those running NZTR at the time. His salary in 2019 was between $690,000 and $700,000 so give the man a break - he's fallen on hard times at $456,000 in the Ombudsman's role.

The Advisory Committee is interesting -all members are smart and very successful. However the elephant in the room for the two codes looms inevitably closer and this move to appoint an Advisory Committee feels like “pass the parcel” in terms of their trying to sort out a $60m, or so, hole in code funding that was there day one. Entain will have adhered to their initial commitment and will now enjoy the remaining 20 years of their contract. It feels ugly……

There’d be a digital footprint. That question, you’d expect, be followed….

The Independent Panel is a good process - too often doubts remain as to the how and why, when controversy occurs. All 3 appointed panel members know the harness industry. Outcome for mine is to work out where the buck stopped/who had the ultimate sign-off in terms of changes made. Then ensuring to not make the same mistake twice……

Matt Cross in the Cup Day Maiden in 2022 "Often the winner of this goes on to do good things..." https://harness.hrnz.co.nz/gws/ws/r/infohorsews/wsd06x?Arg=hrnzg-Ptype&Arg=RaceVideo&Arg=hrnzg-RacehdrID&Arg=3DE05F6F-13D8-4C7B-957B-75631E41A1B8&Arg=hrnzg-rSite&Arg=TRUE

Very simple arithmetic. Prior to the Entain deal the TAB distributed $126million to the 3 codes. This year, and for the next 3 years, Entain will distribute $180million to the 3 codes. Maybe each code distributes that extra income steam based on who’s around the table, however the bottom line is that stakes on all 3 codes have never been better. Year 6 is going to be fun but for now how anyone can knock the current return is delusional.

I’d buy the “push” suggestion - signed exit packages ensuring zero published comments ( unless pre-approved) by the departing two. Very standard stuff in the corporate world….two expensive enough heads at best replaced by one? Currently we’re in a five year gold rush with Entain is how one trainer summed it all up. And after this five year honeymoon Entain will have a further 20 years left to go. Within Entain’s brand (and asset) portfolio, NZ represents a little toe nail when compared to their overall asset base but hey, in their annual published accounts, NZ will always get a one line mention.

A refresh using the wireframe - to be fair DS it’s not a 5 minute job given all the old code that would still need to be supported. Gets a tick for mine albeit, like any makeover, there’s still fixes needed so would expect updates to flow through.

Here's a starter for ten Nomates. In 2005 Helen Clark needed Winston's 7 votes to form a coalition government. One of Winston's 'asks' was that Fair Tax - a reduction in the Gaming Duty paid by the TAB was reduced. Curiously Labour consulted with National about this request and National said that they had no objections. Gerry Brownlee shared this fact with me at that time. We had met in the run up to that 2005 election where we discussed Fair Tax and sought National's support. Fair Tax was then worth over $30m additional revenue to the TAB and it increased over time to $40m in impact . The sad fact was that the owners saw very little of this extra income. The TAB took their share and proceeded to bolster their numbers with overpaid employees. The three codes took their share to bolster their reserves leaving the trickle down of stakes paid to owners at about 20% only of that $30m+ Had it not been for Winston pushing for this change in legislation, it would not have happened. David McCarthy, the 'Press' racing editor at that time, shook his head in disbelief that this had all happened. David had been scathing of the Fair Tax push and had poo poo'd the thought of it ever happening in his racing editorials. On a side note, James Meager came to one of our race meetings late last year and he liked what he saw with a country club investing in its facilities and running well. James has a small share in a horse. He comes across as a top person and hopefully continues to climb the ranks of politics.

any odds offered on a legal challenge on this political decision, happening?

Congrats for putting on Friday nights card. Many owners are in a race worth $100,000 and going “wow,” 100% of the. stakes go to the owner. Roll it again Ronnie… .

and meanwhile, NZTAB have released details of where most of their pokie funds, that previously went to the RIB, has been divvied up. This funding is not connected in any way to Entain FY24 TAB NZ Applied Racing Industry Funding TAB NZ has determined that at least 80% of Net Proceeds will be applied under it’s 'Racing' Authorised Purposes to the New Zealand Racing Industry, for the year to 31 July 2024, TAB NZ has Applied the following Net Proceeds to provide for the promotion, control and conduct of race meetings under the Racing Industry Act 2020: Racing New Zealand – FY24 Rejuvenation Funding. $899,928 Greyhound Racing New Zealand – FY24 Rejuvenation Funding. $1,650,000 Harness Racing New Zealand – FY24 Rejuvenation Funding. $2,246,770 New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing – FY24 Rejuvenation Funding. $7,436,635 NZ Racing Calendar Publications $6,262 Archived Racing Content Digitisation Project $34,093 TOTAL APPLICATION TO RACING AUTHORISED PURPOSE $12,273,688

Here was Entain's release when the deal was struck that relates to this Key terms of the proposed strategic arrangement: Ministerial approval, NZ$160m (approximately £81m1) is payable in 2023, with the balance subject to passing of certain legislative amendments;