Bet on overseas rates

At the end of July the bookmakers William Hill announced that they had taken the decision to move their telephone gambling service to Gibraltar and close their telephone betting operation in the UK. William Hill took the decision in “response to the challenge of competing with betting exchanges and offshore telebetting operators, all of whom have benefited from significant cost and tax advantages over UK bookmakers.” William Hill’s online business already operates from Gibraltar.

Bookmakers operating overseas don’t have to pay the horserace betting levy which currently stands at 10%. Whilst this rate has been unchanged since 2002, as more firms took up an overseas option, UK firms lost out.

The entire process of moving betting operations overseas is a side effect of the improvements in international telephone services. The availability of single telephone numbers that can be called from any country means that businesses can have an internationally branded presence. Alternatively, packages such as the Callagenix “calling Spain” option allow your calls to be diverted to a telephone number overseas without your clients being aware that you have left the country. So if you fancy a winter in Spain, you can carry on your business without clients being any the wiser.

For businesses who operate in multiple countries, “call divert” options such as “follow the sun” allow worldwide callers to be routed automatically to an office which is open, thus enabling you to provide a 24 hour service to your clients.

Continuing on the horse racing theme, those dedicated fans who want to share their knowledge might want to consider a tipster package. This allows the tipster to upload a recorded message via a phone or PC and change the message whenever they want. The information can also be restricted to a select few via a PIN which allows businesses to charge a fee for belonging to the service. For those who want to leave multiple messages there is a “press 1 for Newmarket, 2 for Cheltenham etc” option. Add in a choice of telephone numbers which includes premium rate lines and the package is complete.