The Financial Mail reported on Friday that ‘Phumelela galloped home in fine style in its six months to January, lifting headline earnings 19.2% to R64.5m’.
Fingers were pointed – ‘the total would have been far higher had bookmakers contributed their part of the operating costs of staging horse races’.
“Bookies will eventually have to pay their fair share,” says Phumelela CE Rian du Plessis. “We have initiatives on the go to persuade government on the issue.”
Pity they didn’t ask Mr du Plessis about the myriad of frustrated punters trying to use the website that cavorts as his company’s pari-mutuel online betting platform.
Called www.saftote.co.za, the site is forever hanging, or simply just not working.
Over six months we have religiously reported problems – today we were again inundated by angry punters who had missed exotic bets.
Consider the time and effort expended by punters, buying publications and spending hours studying form – only to see their hopes go up in smoke.
The site also often fails to give ticket positions on exotics accurately and timeously and this can only add to the conspiracy theories that abound.
Phumelela’s Executive Director: Sports Betting Vee Moodley, a man always available to the media and responsible for many product innovations, apologised to punters and said that he was investigating the issue.
At this point in time, it really looks bleak for anybody hoping to bet online with Saftote on Champions Day – especially if they cannot cope with a sleepy off month-end Sunday.
