Alizeti edge closer to Tote takeover with next £20 million payment imminent

The effective transfer of the Tote from Betfred to Alizeti, the consortium of racing-backed investors behind the Together For The Tote project, is expected to take place in a little over a week's time.

Alizeti, which paid £20 million for a 25 per cent share in the Tote in May 2018, is understood to be working towards handing over a similar sum for the same stake in the next tranche of a four-phase payment agreement on October 15, just 24 hours before it stages a presentation to MPs and guests in Westminster.

Totepool managing director Phil Siers said on Saturday: "I'm pretty confident that the second payment will be made within the next ten days, give or take a day or two."

Alizeti's investment will be completed over the coming 24 months through equal payments of £25m, to be made on the anniversaries of the latest transaction, taking its total bill to £115m. Betfred paid £180m in net terms when it bought the Tote from the government in 2011.

As part of the latest settlement, Betfred is expected to continue to manage the Tote's services for the next 12 months.

While British racecourses that offer Tote products wait to discover by how much they will eventually benefit from the new regime, among those most anxious for clarity about the new set-up are officials from the Hong Kong Jockey Club, whose burgeoning overseas co-mingling business is massively dependent on bets channelled through the UK Tote.

A senior HKJC official, in Paris at the weekend to oversee the first Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe programme on which French PMU bets were transmitted into the Hong Kong pool, said: "We have been used to dealing with just one person in the UK, Phil Siers. We are not sure who we will be dealing with in the future."

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