Australian operators boosted by greyhound racing ban reversal
Ladbrokes among firms welcoming return of the "growth sport" in New South Wales
Operators have welcomed the news that New South Wales has reversed a ban on greyhound racing in the state.
The ban was due to be imposed after a report found evidence of animal cruelty in the sport, but a major backlash from the industry itself and media personalities saw State Premier Mike Baird offer the sport “one last chance”.
“We got it wrong – I got it wrong, cabinet got it wrong, the government got it wrong,” Baird said.
Ladbrokes CEO Dean Shannon welcomed the U-turn, commenting: “Sensible heads prevailed.”
He added: “Ladbrokes Australia is very pleased with this result as we have close ties with a number of the NSW clubs and look forward to strengthening those relationships.
“There are so many people in the NSW greyhound industry that fought hard and tirelessly for the whole industry and the process has been exhausting for those individuals.”
Oddschecker’s Australian country manager Adrian Molloy also welcomed the decision, claiming the ban would have hurt the betting industry overall, with greyhound racing a “huge growth area in recent years”.
In fact, greyhound racing turnover is up 12% in the state of Queensland over the last year despite the scandal over animal cruelty.
“The short, sharp nature of greyhound racing has meant that they are very popular events to be placed in between horse and harness races on the national TV racing broadcaster Sky Racing,” Molloy said.
“The âchurn and burn’ nature of the betting in greys is a key strategy of Tabcorp, who hold the off course totalisator monopoly in NSW and Victoria (two biggest states) and love it â it almost creates a visual poker machine with a race of some code every 30 to 60 seconds.”