Story so Far 2
This isn't really the place to go into the reasons for the failure of the business. Suffice it to say that IGH's chairman Thomas Taule failed to improve on what one of the world's greatest betting minds had managed at premierbet (which had reputably never made any money under Bloom) or the wealth of experience that Simmonds had applied to his credit betting operation. Although neither book performed as well as in their previous incarnations, the relative profitability of the Heathorns clients continued to be markedly better than the Premierbet side of the business with its internet origins.
Warning signs that all was not well at IGH starting surfacing in the spring of 2007. Company results were late being published due to 'logistical issues', leading to the firms AIM listed shares being suspended, and when they were published they revealed a pre-tax loss of £1.97m. Reports of increasingly desperate credit lines to keep the company ticking over emerged and CEO John Heaton resigned. Postings on various internet fora from disgruntled punters suggested that many punters were being slow paid or stonewalled by the help desk and not being paid at all. These complaints were highlighted in the Racing Post in July of 2007 and by that time the game was pretty much up for IGH. Despite constant reassurances that punters would be paid and continued sign-up bonuses being offered to fresh depositers, the inevitable happened. Shares were suspended, never to return, two members of the board resigned and Thomas Taule went to ground.
What happened next brings shame upon British bookmaking. Although things are still murky at this stage it would appear from press reports that Jennings bought up Heathorns and Premierbet databases and the Orbis software used to power the websites. Good news for punters you would have thought. Only if you were a Heathorns customer sadly! At the time of writing Jennings have only pledged to honour Heathorn customers' balances. Premierbet punters have been left high and dry! Jennings have the Premierbet database, the premierbet software, presumably they also have the premierbet losses to offset against tax, maybe they are even thinking of offsetting premierbet punters' winnings against GPT! However, at time of writing, they have not pledged to pay those winnings! This is completely without precedent in bookmaker buyouts, where accountholders are invariably honoured if the business is continued, and it stinks.
