Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 7 November 2013

Public Accounts Committee

Bord na gCon - Annual Accounts 2011

1:20 pm

Mr. Adrian Neilan:

No. Some 80% of the dogs that run in the UK come from Ireland and they allow the UK bookmakers to make £243 million from gross gambling yield wagering in that product. Our intent, in terms of the decline in dog figures in the UK, is to ask the bookmakers in the UK to bet on our product here. We believe we have great racing. It is about customising our product to make it work. We are in discussions with a large television entity which is interested in taking Irish racing content from us on a Tuesday night by which, in effect, a bookmaking audience will bet into our greyhound racing. Our racing is slightly different from that in the UK . They use a closed kennel system which means the dogs are specific to their stadia. In Ireland we have an open kennel system and the dogs travel around. We believe we can make this work and make it happen. That is an opportunity for us.

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