UK Bookies see collapse in phone bets after demise of at-the-races
UK Bookmakers have suffered a drop in telephone betting of between 20 and 40 per cent in the past few weeks, since the Attheraces UK horseracing channel went off air.
William Hill yesterday told The Independent that its takings were down 20 per cent since the screens went black on Attheraces on 1 April. The channel, owned by BSkyB, Arena Leisure and Channel 4, was forced to close after failing to generate sufficient revenues. It had been hoped that UK punters would make bets through interactive television, but most were calling up their own bookies from their sofa.
"Telephone betting is down something of the order of 20 per cent," David Harding, the chief executive of William Hill, said yesterday. "But it is a storm we can weather as it means that more people are coming in to our UK highstreet shops."
William Hill has one of the biggest telephone betting services in the sector, and telephone bets accounts for as much 15 per cent of the business. About 75 per cent of bets placed over the phone are on horseracing ♣
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UK Bookies see collapse in phone bets after demise of at-the-races
