New Zealand’s RITA announces leadership team appointments

Racing Industry Transitional Authority (RITA) of New Zealand has announced new appointments to its executive leadership team (ELT)with the inclusion of Jessica Meech and Sam Moncur.

Meech, who currently heads risk and regulatory affairs for the horse racing body, will now take on the role of general counsel on the authority’s ELT.

Moncur, who has so far been filling the role of head of media operations and commercial development at RITA, will now serve as the ELT’s new general finance manager.

RITA said, “Our ELT values diversity of thought and leadership, and Meech and Moncur’s skills and understanding of the business and its people will be invaluable as full participating members of the ELT – particularly as we transition to, and become, TAB NZ.”

These two ELT appointments come after RITA admitted last month that there were concerns about the New Zealand Racing Industry Bill, which does not offer the flexibility needed for the launch of new betting products.

“The new Bill is the culmination of the most significant reform of racing since 2003 and follows the Racing Reform Act which came into force on July 1 and included the gradual repeal of the betting levy and enabling regulations for a Point of Consumption Charge and Betting Information Use Charges”, RITA chair Dean McKenzie had said when the bill was introduced.

McKenzie had pointed at the time that the racing industry was an important part of New Zealand’s culture and economy.

If the bill passes into law, RITA willeventually evolve into TAB NZ, but the transitional body stated that the proposed structure “is not yet where it needs to be”. However, the authority did also disclose that a bill to regulate online betting may be in the works.

RITA had published mixed financial results in November last year, reporting that though it had failed to hit profit targets in the 2018-19 fiscal year, its performance in the current year was ahead of expectations.

The year ending July 31, 2019 saw revenue fallby 3.1% year-on-year to NZ$348.0m (£169.6m/€202.9m/$219.9m), but total turnover was up by 1.2% to $2.77bn.

The combined expenses from turnover and operating costs amounted to $211.3m, down 0.9% from 2017-18 -this led to a net profit of $136.7mbefore distributions, down 6.3% year-on-year.

RITA, however, also revealed that both turnover and profit for the year-to-date were ahead of initial expectations, with profit NZ$2.9m ahead of budget.