An each-way strategy makes it hard to predict the true winner

The irony of the Hong Kong Jockey Club being named as the operator for legal soccer betting is that the main sufferer is likely to be its own foundation of gambling on horse racing.

The announcement was highly predictable, given that the club has an efficient, well-respected and trusted infrastructure already in place for race betting.

The club operates as a so-called non-profit organisation, though in reality it operates for profit and its dividends go to a different set of shareholders - the government and charities.

Had another operator been decided upon, the Jockey Club would have been a major loser and that would have had negative implications for a community in which it is the biggest taxpayer and the largest source of charity revenues.

But just what sort of a winner the Jockey Club or Hong Kong will be from this remains to be seen.

Punters who might otherwise be at Happy Valley or Sha Tin or playing by Telebet, may be just as comfortable sitting down to Arsenal and Manchester United on the television and having an interest in that instead.