‘Good for business’ – RWWA boss can see upside in national tote system

Australia’s only government-owned TAB says the concept of a national tote pool for racing would strengthen its position in the wagering market but admits it would be unlikely to change its customers preference for fixed-odds betting.

Racing and Wagering Western Australia (RWWA) chief executive Ian Edwards said he welcomed a move from Tabcorp counterpart Gillon McLachlan to explore a national product in a bid to arrest a decades-long decline in totalisator wagering.

Bringing Australia’s tote pools under one umbrella has been at the forefront of McLachlan’s plans for Tabcorp since he joined the ASX-listed company as chief executive in 2024.

After a year of cost-cutting and consolidation, McLachlan left Tabcorp investors in no doubt at its recent annual general meeting that 2026 will be about chasing revenue initiatives.

A national tote is at the top of McLachlan’s priorities.

“At last year’s AGM, I said I supported a national tote. We are seeking to deliver it,” McLachlan said.

“We’re engaging with state racing bodies, and I remain optimistic we can make a national tote a reality in FY26.”

Since 2012, WA TAB tote customers bets flow into Tabcorp’s Victorian pool and Edwards believes the more liquidity available via a national set-up, the more commercial sense it makes.

Navigating the complexities of state-based regulations and legislation will be the greatest impediment to a Tabcorp-driven amalgamation.

“From a customer perspective, it can only be a good thing because there will be more liquid pools, more money going through and truer dividends on that basis,” Edwards told The Straight.

“I appreciate it won’t be an easy thing to make happen given the existing contractual arrangements but we would be very supportive.

“It would be left to Tabcorp to work through all of those necessary approvals, but certainly from our business perspective, it would be a good thing rather than a bad thing.”

A parimutuel downturn has been a pinch point in Australia’s wagering landscape for the best part of the past decade.

Where tote betting once supplied the fuel for the racing economy, the explosion in the corporate bookmaking scene since the turn of the century has forced a major shifting in betting habits.

Savvy online operators have been able to complement fixed-odds offerings with tote derivative bet-types that have eaten into Tabcorp’s market share.

In 2000, 85 per cent of Australian turnover on racing was generated through the tote.

Latest figures paint a grim picture with that figure dropping to 16 per cent, nationally. 

“There’s obviously a strong customer drive towards fixed odds and I’m not sure that that’s going to change in the long run,” Edwards said.

“But certainly any uplift into the tote is a good thing from the perspective of our business.”

RWWA operates the WA TAB under the state government’s ownership while also serving a dual role as the state’s racing regulator.

It puts RWWA in a one-off situation in the Australian racing industry after plans for a WA TAB sell-off were abandoned last year.

Legislation was passed in 2019 to allow the sale of the TAB, along with an allowance for any successful bidder to offer electronic simulated racing games in retail outlets.

The then-McGowan government put the “for sale” sign up with the TAB reportedly running on cash reserves at the time, creating racing industry uncertainty. 

An initial sale process was pushed to one side in August 2020 due to COVID-19 but recommenced with a range of suitors reportedly expressing an interest in the business.

Tabcorp emerged as the most logical buyer as an acquisition would have completed a retail and parimutuel monopoly in Australia.

A reported $1 billion valuation from a potential deal with betr never materialised and in a declining wagering market, purchasing the WA TAB became a less than enticing proposition for Tabcorp, who later struck a $600m deal with the Victorian government to end a joint venture.

Entain was also flagged as a possible buyer before the global betting giant turned its attention to a partnership with TAB NZ, signing a 25-year agreement that started in 2024.

Nevertheless, Edwards says RWWA enjoys a healthy interrelation with Australia’s corporate bookmaking sector despite an obvious conflict of interest with his organisation as a direct competitor for the punting dollar.

“We’ve got relationships with all the bookmakers, but certainly with the bigger ones, we’ve had good relationships,” he said.

“It’s up to us to make sure that we stay relevant and we stay on their radar. It’s very easy for businesses based out of Melbourne or down the east coast to forget about WA racing if we stop reminding them.

“The relationships are good, but it’s on us just to make sure that the bookmakers remember where we are and how good the racing is.”