PHUMELELA Gold Enterprises (PGE) and Tabcorp have announced an important development in their strategic relationship.

PGE and Tabcorp will jointly own the international totalisator gateway business currently operated by Phumelela Gold International, a Phumelela Group company based on the Isle of Man (subject to satisfaction of conditions mentioned below).

Rian du Plessis of Phumelela.

The relationship will take the form of an incorporated joint venture known as Premier Gateway International (PGI). Tabcorp is the first international tote operator to accept the invitation to join PGE in the gateway business.

PGE and Tabcorp share the vision of global co-mingling and this joint venture between the two organisations is the first step towards achieving that goal.

The variety of systems and technologies utilised for tote betting in racing jurisdictions across the globe is a major hurdle to global co-mingling. This is due to the significant reciprocal investments in time and resources which are required to co-mingle tote pools.

A global tote gateway, such as PGI, expedites and facilitates co-mingling because once a tote system is connected to the gateway, it will have access to other tote systems around the world that are already linked to the gateway.

Rian du Plessis, Phumelela Group CEO, said: “We are delighted at the prospect of entering into this strategic relationship with Tabcorp and look forward to working with them in developing the Isle of Man gateway to its full potential.

“The gateway will offer different tote operators the ability to co-mingle tote pools with different totes through one software solution as opposed to having to develop a variety of solutions,” he added.

David Attenborough, Tabcorp’s Managing Director of Wagering, said: “Tabcorp welcomes the opportunity offered by PGE to be the first major international wagering company to participate with them in the gateway business.

“Global co-mingling has historically been expensive and protracted. This gateway business offers tote operators more efficient and less costly access to other global totes.

“We believe that the Australian and New Zealand racing industry will benefit from the additional export opportunity created by Tabcorp totalisator pools becoming accessible through the gateway. This can build on the $A28m already distributed to the Australian racing industry over the last five years by the Tabcorp-owned Sky Racing, which manages Australian racing’s international rights and exports it to 30 countries.”

The establishment of the PGI joint venture is conditional on Tabcorp, Phumelela and PGI receiving necessary regulatory and racing industry approvals and a number of additional agreements being agreed and finalised between Phumelela and Tabcorp.