[AusRace] Zeljko

[L.B.Loveday]

NEWS <https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/news> 


Australian ‘billionaire’ Zeljko Ranogajec in new UK betting venture


 <https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/ca299b8749fe10ac3259bba3403d4c86>
Zeljko Ranogajec pictured in 2013 in Sydney’s Balnmoral, where he reportedly
owned a home.

*	Mark Souster
*	The Times
*	1:50PM May 17, 2018
*	Save
<https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/news/australian-billionaire-zeljk
o-ranogajec-in-new-uk-betting-venture/news-story/0ec99dccbfc9d971c630b9a5d45
3d76e> 

*          

*	Share on Facebook
<https://facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2F
business%2Fnews%2Faustralian-billionaire-zeljko-ranogajec-in-new-uk-betting-
venture%2Fnews-story%2F0ec99dccbfc9d971c630b9a5d453d76e&t=Aussie%20%E2%80%98
billionaire%E2%80%99%20in%20UK%20punt> 
*	Share on Twitter
<https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au
%2Fbusiness%2Fnews%2Faustralian-billionaire-zeljko-ranogajec-in-new-uk-betti
ng-venture%2Fnews-story%2F0ec99dccbfc9d971c630b9a5d453d76e&text=Aussie%20%E2
%80%98billionaire%E2%80%99%20in%20UK%20punt> 
*	Share on email
<mailto:?subject=Aussie%20%E2%80%98billionaire%E2%80%99%20in%20UK%20punt&bod
y=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fbusiness%2Fnews%2Faustralian-bill
ionaire-zeljko-ranogajec-in-new-uk-betting-venture%2Fnews-story%2F0ec99dccbf
c9d971c630b9a5d453d76e> 
*	Share more...
<https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/news/australian-billionaire-zeljk
o-ranogajec-in-new-uk-betting-venture/news-story/0ec99dccbfc9d971c630b9a5d45
3d76e#share-tools> 

*	 

An Australian businessman who has been described as the world’s biggest
gambler is the controlling figure behind a company that will partner the new
betting venture designed to support British racing, The Times can reveal.

Zeljko Ranogajec, a 56-year-old Tasmanian nicknamed the “Loch Ness monster”
because he is so rarely spotted, is one of two main shareholders in Colossus
Bets, an online gambling company that is due to launch a new pool betting
venture this year in partnership with 55 UK racecourses.

The new service, called Britbet, is being set up as a rival to the Tote,
which was privatised in 2011, and will have a visible presence at the vast
majority of Britain’s 60 race tracks from July. It has been presented to
gamblers and racing fans as a venture “by racing, for racing”, so that
profits will be poured back into the sport.

An investigation by The Times into Mr Ranogajec and Colossus Bets raises
questions over whether Britbet chose the best partners to achieve that
ambition of securing the deal which generates most revenue for the sport. Mr
Ranogajec is thought to have become a billionaire through his gambling
prowess around the world using algorithms, sophisticated computer programs
and analytics. Much of his income is derived from the large rebates, often
as high as 20 per cent on his bets, that he can command for playing into the
betting pools.

“Pool betting” describes the type of betting markets in which all stakes are
paid into a prize pot. The bookmaker then takes a percentage of that pot —
meaning the bookmaker is guaranteed to make money — and the remainder is
divided between all of the punters who placed winning bets.

Pool betting operators commonly offer rebates — where a percentage of a
stake is repaid even for a losing bet — to large-scale punters prepared to
bet huge sums of money, because they help to keep prize pots sufficiently
valuable to be attractive to all gamblers.

 <https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/fa7bd422c4098266fefb0ad8cdc6e012>
England’s Ascot Racecourse. Pic: Getty Images

When living in Australia, Mr Ranogajec had twice before been able to
negotiate legally high rebates with a betting operator in the Polynesian
Islands and the Tote in his native Tasmania. The Tote there had to be sold
off after it struggled to make a profit.

The Tote in Britain, the previously state-owned bookmaker that was sold to
Betfred in 2011, has held exclusive rights to offer pool betting in the UK
but that ends this (northern) summer, which is why most of the racecourses
have established Britbet and plan to offer its service at on-course betting
concessions from July.

Britbet announced last year that it had agreed a partnership with Colossus
Bets, a London-based company founded in 2012, which would give them a
platform to offer their pool betting products online. The Times can reveal
today that in doing so, Britbet signed up to a partnership with Mr
Ranogajec.

During a 30-year gambling career, Mr Ranogajec has, perfectly legitimately,
made hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from horse racing by
negotiating rebates of 10 per cent or more with the operators of pool
betting services in other countries.

Once he has agreed the rebate, Mr Ranogajec, who employs an army of analysts
to identify the best bets, only needs to break even on his wagers and the
rebate becomes his profit. If, as has been claimed, Mr Ranogajec bets more
than £500 million ($900m) each year, following this model would yield him a
£50 million ($90m) annual profit. While large-scale gamblers may be
successful in pool betting, it can come at a price to the pool operator.

Mr Ranogajec’s involvement in Colossus Bets — and its partnership with
Britbet — will raise questions about the level of rebates the new service
will offer, and whether those rebates will allow Britbet to put back into
racing as much as it hoped. After an investigation by The Times into
Colossus Bets, we can reveal that:

* Mr Ranogajec also uses the name John Wilson. Wilson is his wife Shelley’s
surname.

* Colossus Bets has not made a profit in six years, and accrued losses of
£17 million over that period. It is only kept afloat by a short-term loan
from Mr Ranogajec and another shareholder.

* Mr Ranogajec has been involved in two Tote pool operations in Australia,
one of which in Tasmania had to be sold off by its government to stave off
collapse.

* He has been the subject of a lengthy investigation in the Australian
Taxation Office
<https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/treasury/taxman-targets-t
he-king-of-punters-zeljko-ranogajec/news-story/d28d9690e5034033b1d94a727f173
4eb?sv=600026edce1294a4b076900d1a4e2a60> (ATO), with whom he reached an
undisclosed settlement in 2012.

* His address in London is a £14.8 million apartment at one of the capital’s
most exclusive addresses in Knightsbridge.

* John Wilson is listed in Colossus Bets accounts as a person who has
significant control over the business.

* His shareholding is held by an offshore trust in the Isle of Man.

 <https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/0b508f84f8b4be40d960eb04d43d7a11> Mr
Ranogajec’s partner Shelley Wilson, in Sydney’s Neutral Bay in 2013.

Britbet is due to be rolled out on July 13, and racing fans will want to
know whether it will offer high-value punters such as Mr Ranogajec rebates
for betting large sums. There has been speculation within the gambling
industry that it may even offer rebates of more than 20 per cent.

Colossus Bets has two main shareholders, Mr Ranogajec and Bernard
Marantelli, who is listed as the chief executive. Between them they own more
than 80 per cent of the company. Mr Ranogajec, using the name Wilson, and Mr
Marantelli are listed as the company’s beneficial owners.

Colossus Bets’ most recent accounts, filed in December 2017, reveal that as
well as making huge losses, it has a deficit in working capital of £15.2
million and is supported only by short-term loans of £18.7 million, which
according to the accounts were due to be repaid by the end of March to its
beneficial owners.

These loans had been long term but were reclassified last year, when the
company borrowed another £5.2 million.

A decade ago, Mr Ranogajec was the subject of a long inquiry in Australia,
where the activities of a collection of high-level gamblers known as the
Punters Club, which included Mr Ranogajec, were investigated. They argued
that gambling profits in Australia are not liable to taxation.

ATO targets the king of punters
<https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/treasury/taxman-targets-t
he-king-of-punters-zeljko-ranogajec/news-story/d28d9690e5034033b1d94a727f173
4eb?sv=600026edce1294a4b076900d1a4e2a60> 

The ATO said that the club was not merely a group of friends but a highly
organised business, betting vast sums which used sophisticated encryption
technology to ensure privacy. As such it should be taxed.

When contacted by The Times, the ATO said: “We do not discuss individual
cases.”

Once in Britain, Mr Ranogajec and his wife Shelley — whom he met when she
was working as a croupier in a casino — moved into One Hyde Park.

 <https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/c9f07a6c7b9792fa2b1f70572ce1c67f> The
luxurious One Hyde Park development in London’s Knightsbridge. Pic:
Bloomberg

Britbet says that when it launches it will offer a range of “exotic and
innovative bets” such as “cash out” and guaranteed six and seven-figure
prize pools. It has also intimated that it will pay rebates and incentives.

Colossus Bets provides the backroom operation for Britbet through a company
called Newfield in the tax haven of the Isle of Man. In its advertising it
states that it is a company which specialises in “horse racing and sporting
events”. Two of its directors are also directors of Colossus Bets and a
trail leads back to Australia and to John Wilson.

Newfield also owns Newfield Australia, which is the holding company for a
company called Data Processors. That company lists John Wilson as a director
and sole shareholder, and gives his address in Britain.

Dick McIlwain, the former chief executive of Tatts Group, which runs pool
betting services in Australia, said he was not surprised that Mr Ranogajec
had turned up in Britain. Mr McIllwain rescued the Tasmanian Tote ten years
ago after it struggled to recover from paying Ranogajec huge sums in
rebates.

“He is so clever he will find some other jurisdiction he can come in through
to get favourable rebates,” Mr McIlwain said. “British racing needs to be
aware he is not a charity.”

Colossus Bets did not respond when contacted by The Times for comment
yesterday.

Full statement from Britbet

“Colossus Bets provide innovative products, features and have a proven
track-record in working with well-known brands.

“We undertook extensive due diligence on Colossus Bets, an award-winning
company licensed by the UK Gambling Commission which provides betting
products to a long list of licensed betting operators in the UK and
overseas. We are obviously aware that Colossus benefits from Mr Ranogajec’s
gambling industry experience and financial resources. We are also fully
aware that his legal name is John Wilson.

“Incurring significant costs in seeking to establish a network business is
quite normal and we are pleased to be partnering with an operator with the
financial resources to pursue the ‘by racing, for racing’ Britbet vision of
reinvigorating the pool betting landscape and securing revenues for the
sport.

“It is, therefore, very clearly in the interests of racing for Britbet to
work in partnership with the brightest people and the best products in pool
betting and we are looking forward to customers welcoming this approach when
we launch later this summer.”

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ausrace.com/pipermail/racing_ausrace.com/attachments/20180517/8046ad5d/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 35926 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ausrace.com/pipermail/racing_ausrace.com/attachments/20180517/8046ad5d/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 57600 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ausrace.com/pipermail/racing_ausrace.com/attachments/20180517/8046ad5d/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 32033 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ausrace.com/pipermail/racing_ausrace.com/attachments/20180517/8046ad5d/attachment-0002.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 52743 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://ausrace.com/pipermail/racing_ausrace.com/attachments/20180517/8046ad5d/attachment-0003.jpg>