Greyhound Racing Victoria has looked to spark a turnaround in wagering by making several major changes to its Minimum Bet Limit (MBL) structure from November 1.
GRV reported a seven percent decline in wagering in the 2022/23 financial year and CEO Stuart Laing was previously quoted as saying there had been a 15 per cent drop in the first nine months of the 2023/24 financial year, prompting major financial challenges, including prize money cuts and redundancies.
In a bid to re-invigorate betting turnover, Racing Victoria, facing a similar wagering downturn, recently changed its race field structure, lessening the burden on punters.
One of the levers open to GRV is to change the structure which obliges wagering providers to open markets by a certain time and allow punters to bet to win at least certain amounts.
“The intention of the MBL policy is to provide a balance between ensuring punters are able to bet reasonable amounts on Victorian greyhound racing and allowing wagering providers to manage integrity, risk and commercial outcomes so that Victorian greyhound racing remains an attractive product,” GRV explained in a release on Monday
Having consulted both WSPs and punters, GRV confirmed it had made three changes to its structure for fixed odds betting.
The first is an extension of the window that MBL conditions are active, with twilight and night meetings needing to be active from 12pm on raceday, or two hours prior to the start of a meeting in the case of meetings held during the day.
Secondly, wagering service providers who don’t meet a $3 million annual turnover threshold must now accept a bet (win bet only) to win/lose $250 from all customers.
Thirdly, WSPs who meet the $3 million annual turnover threshold must comply with the MBL conditions for at least six months.
Bookmakers above that threshold will remain obliged to offer punters to win/lose $2000 (win bet) on Group 1 Victorian greyhound meetings, $1000 (win bet) on metropolitan meeting and $500 on non-metropolitan meetings
“These conditions apply to fixed odds bets on Victorian greyhound races and include telephone and internet bets placed on Victorian greyhound races, but exclude bets placed in a retail outlet,” GRV said.
“GRV takes its MBL policy seriously. If punters have a complaint, they should in the first instance contact the wagering operator to ascertain the reason for the refusal or exclusion.
“If the punter remains unsatisfied with the reason provided by the wagering operator, and they do not fall within one of the exclusions listed in the conditions, then they are encouraged to lodge a formal complaint with GRV.”
