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Bookmaking giant gets go-ahead on eve of winter season.
Greyville racecourse in Durban. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
When Owen Heffer was selling rough-printed tipping sheets outside Greyville racecourse in 1984 – for a few rand to keep his young family alive – he didn’t dream he’d one day own the place.
Yet this week, just over 40 years later, that improbable scenario came to pass.
On 1 May, the KwaZulu-Natal Economic Regulatory Authority approved the acquisition of the province’s horse racing operator Gold Circle by Hollywood Sportsbook Holdings.
The latter, of course, is the holding company of the gambling giant that grew from the tiny seed of those humble lists of tips, through the Winning Form guide and a tiny bookmaking business.
In 2023, with Gold Circle in severe financial trouble, Heffer’s Hollywoodbets proposed bailing out the company with an initial R500-million rescue injection. Gold Circle’s shareholders jumped at the offer.
Hollywoodbets had by then become the fairy godmother of many sporting and non-sporting endeavours, ploughing millions back into its heartland community in KZN – and then further afield.
Famous buyouts and sponsorships included the takeover and very successful revitalisation of Cape Town horse racing; race sponsorship of South Africa’s premier race, the Durban July, and branding of Brentford football club in London.
Other tie-ups included sponsorship of the Dolphins provincial cricket side – and their stadium; sponsorship of the Sharks rugby team – and their stadium, sponsorship of South Africa’s women’s cricketers, and a multitude of helping hands lower down the rungs of sport and charity.
Owen Haffer’s rags-to-riches story is for another day. In the meantime, racing fans are celebrating the rescue job he and his team have pulled off in the place where his initial small punt delivered a sensational return.
A Hollywood press release on Thursday declared “a seriously ambitious and committed plan to resurrect the failing industry in the richly culturally diverse province that has enjoyed a passionate following of the sport for well over a century”.
It continued: “It is a reality that, given the combination of the prevailing economic climate and dramatic changes in the betting landscape, horseracing countrywide has languished in the doldrums for a large part of the 21st century.”
The company promised “a focus on the best utilisation of resources, while embracing a wider universal appeal that will keep pace with ever evolving modern entertainment trends, directed at a wider customer market”.
The investment will preserve about 6,000 jobs in KZN. Facilities at venues and training centres will be modernised, prize money will be boosted, the racing programme will be revamped, and incentives to promote racehorse ownership and boost field sizes will be introduced.
Already buildings and equipment are being renovated and upgraded – including a revamp of the Hollywoodbets Greyville Polytrack and the course’s floodlighting. At Summerveld Training Centre in Hillcrest, money will go into upgrading stabling, accommodation and roads.
It will all cost a tad more than the initial R500-million mentioned.
The government green light for the buyout comes as the KZN Champions’ Season – the unofficial “national championships” of racing – gets underway at Greyville on Saturday.
The famous old Drill Hall Stakes tops the card, alongside the WSB Guineas and WSB Fillies Guineas, with all three races being important pointers to the Hollywoodbets Durban July in two months’ time.
The cherry on the top is an expected R3-million Pick 6 carryover pool on the day.
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