Breeding & Racing Magazine

Betfair Chief Slams Tatts Director Over 24m Shares

Betfair Australia chief executive Andrew Twaits has responded to newspaper advertisements placed by businessman Kevin Seymour, which attacked Queensland Racing’s decision to impose a “10% profit” fee on wagering operators. In his blog on the Betfair website, Twaits declared: “In Mr Seymour’s advertisement he failed to disclose that not only is he a long-time director of UniTAB/Tattersalls, but the Tatts Group Annual Report declares that he also owns 24 million shares in the company. In 2008, Mr Seymour was also reported to own 1 million shares in Tabcorp (down from 7 million shares in 2006). Today, those combined shares are valued at around $67 million. Given these substantial financial & fiduciary interests, it’s only natural for Mr Seymour to feel so strongly about companies like Betfair paying product fees at more than double the rate of the TABs. . . . . I’m not suggesting that Mr Seymour was under a legal obligation to disclose his interests in Tatts (and any remaining interest in Tabcorp) in his advertisement, but even TROA is calling for a more transparent approach to the disclosure of personal interests by contributors to the debate about racing’s funding model.”