Easibet cafe forced to close

Hailed as a revolutionary concept when it was launched at a cost of almost 500,000 in April 2003, the doors of the Easibet outlet in Edinburgh’s Tollcross area have remained bolted for the past few days, a "Closed Until Further Notice" sign pinned up on them.

With both sides in the dispute firmly entrenched and talking in terms of possible court action, it could be there for a while yet and althoughSpurway is adamant he can re-open at a moment’s notice if an agreement is reached, the chances of a peace treaty being signed look slim.

He is currently in discussion with two leading bookmakers over a possible buy-out, but if the sale does go through, the premises would then revert to a traditional betting shop.

At the centre of the disagreement is the payment, or non-payment depending on where you stand, of the commission generated by the punters who use the betting terminals.

Betfair charges winning punters commission and while Easibet has received a percentage of this for all new clients it attracts, Spurway’s contention is that Easibet is also entitled to a share of the commission for existing Betfair customers who use Easibet’s premises, a view disputed by his erstwhile partners.

"Our lawyers have advised us that there is no merit whatsoever in the claims Mr Spurway has made. We would be very surprised if he decided to pursue the matter but if he does, we will happily defend our position," said a spokeswoman for Betfair.

"I would hope justice would prevail, and if nothing is resolved," countered Spurway, "I will be challenging them in court in due course. I find the whole thing very distasteful and in my opinion, ‘Betunfair’ would be a more appropriate name.

"Easibet is still an idea I firmly believe in and selling to a bookmaker is not an option I want to consider. I have tried to keep going in the belief Betfair were going to pay me, but it never happened.

"With running costs of around 3,000 per week, if I were to continue without getting the commission, things just wouldn’t get any better."

Given Easibet’s innovative and radical nature, there was always a possibility it would set the cat among the pigeons and so it has proved with Spurway’s brainchild having had anything but an easy birth.

Should this latest contretemps end up in front of the judges however, the man who was once a bookie himself is unlikely to be overawed by the occasion. William Hill unsuccessfully took him to court last year and a summons was also issued on behalf of easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou who objected to the use of the Easibet name as he said it was too similar to his own company’s.

Now it could be a case of seconds out, round three.

SELECTIONS

IT HAS been suggested the poor quality of racing this week has made it harder than usual to find winners, and things don’t get much easier today, writes Jim Kean. New Zealand import Vulcan Lane, who won well at Newcastle last time out, is worth following in Carlisle’s Resdev Handicap Chase, but the banker is My Gacho, who is fast proving a jack of all trades on the artificial tracks. So far, he’s only won at Southwell, but he can add Lingfield to the list by landing the six-furlong handicap.