Bookmakers save Greyville and Scottsville

THE financial might of the South African bookmaking industry at the moment is quite extraordinary. Hollywoodbets is a Durban firm which not only stepped in to sponsor the Group 1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge at short notice but saved Greyville and Scottsville from closing.

Both racecourses are run by Gold Circle which, after nearly three months with no racing and no income, decided to tap into the R230 (nearly €12 million) which it received from the sale of Clairwood racecourse eight years earlier.

This money was ring-fenced so that it could not be used for ordinary operating costs without a special resolution passed by not less than 75% of the members. Some objected strongly and, while the resolution was passed, only just over 70% voted in favour.

Gold Circle found itself facing the same drastic Business Rescue process as Phumelela, which runs the rest of the country’s racing, only for Hollywoodbets to come up with an unsecured loan of R40 million (more than €2 million) despite its own revenue streams taking a severe hammering in the weeks of lockdown.