Tote Done!

So Betfred have won the Tote and signed a contract with the government to buy the state-owned betting operator for a total of £265 million. Everyone I know in the racing game favoured the Sports Investment Partners bid but Fred’s got it.
Most of the threads on the racing sites are full with unhappy punters and regular race goers all of whom believe this is a bad idea, The Jockey Club of course opposed the sale altogether. Just about every argument against a High Street chain taking over the Tote appears to have been ignored.
I sincerely hope I am wrong but I fear that I and thousands of racing fans across the country will be proved correct and that this deal will ultimately prove to be of no benefit to racing at all.