British Court Rules in Favor of Betfair

Will Hill Loses the case After an extensive legal battle, a British High Court has passed a ruling in favor of online betting exchange Betfair's position in the William Hill Organization Limited against The Horserace Betting Levy Board action. Namely, Will Hill contested a consultation undertaken by the Levy Board in 2010-2011 in which it determined that betting exchange customers were not liable to pay the Horserace Betting Levy. As a primary interested party in the case, Betfair was there to support the Levy Board's position. Commenting on the ruling, chief legal and regulatory officer at Betfair, Martin Cruddace, said: "We welcome the High Court ruling which has vindicated the position of Betfair. It is now neither sustainable nor rational to argue that Betfair customers should be liable to pay the Levy any more than should customers of any other betting operator. "It is ironic that William Hill's online business pays not a penny in Levy itself, despite making tens of millions of pounds in profits annually from British Racing. Yet still, it chose to argue that an undefined class of exchange customers should be required to pay Levy. "The savings made by William Hill through Levy avoidance may help fund poorly advised legal challenges such as this one, but I would suggest that their resources would be better spent working with British Racing to reach a commercial agreement in a similar vein to the one Betfair recently signed with the sport."