New $2.5 million venture with Brisbane Racing Club to ensure Tatts Group remain major backer

A NEW venture with the Brisbane Racing Club may secure Tatts Group as the major financial backer of racing in Queensland.

Trackwork action at Doomben racecourse in Brisbane. Photo: Peter Wallis

A NEW $2.5 million joint venture with the Brisbane Racing Club has provided the strongest indication yet that the Tatts Group will continue to be the major financial backer of racing in Queensland.

The Courier-Mail can reveal the minimum six-year partnership will result in Tatts sponsoring this year’s Group 1 J.J. Atkins and underwriting the upgrade of outdated TAB betting facilities at Doomben and Eagle Farm.

The announcement comes as the June 30 deadline for Racing Queensland’s Product Agreement, which is paramount to racing’s future in this state, draws nearer.

Tatts Group chief executive Robbie Cooke refused to be drawn on any details of the Product Agreement negotiations yesterday, offering only a vague assessment of whether Tatts will win the bid to fund Queensland racing.

“I am a quietly optimistic person by nature,” he said.

CEO Robbie Cooke at the Tatts Group AGM. Photo: Darren England.

However, Cooke was more forthcoming in signalling a renewed commitment to the industry from the group, which has been accused of neglecting racing since the TAB was privatised in the 1990s.

The deal with the BRC was “part of our continuing commitment to work as a true partner with our industry to deliver the best for racing in Queensland”.

“I am very sure we will get this right,” he said.

Punters at Eagle Farm and Doomben have been hamstrung by outdated and neglected betting terminal technology for years.

The service, currently outsourced to an interstate provider, has been an ongoing financial burden to the BRC but under the new arrangement it will be a 50-50 profit share between the club and Tatts.

Fixed odds will be available at every terminal, in addition to increased numbers of self-serve terminals.