Jubliant Fred Done today hailed his £265m takeover of the Tote as a 'victory for the flat caps over the top hats.'

But the self-made millionaire bookmaker said the racing industry that attempted to derail the privatisation has nothing to fear from the doubling of his Betfred empire.

Done, who was born in Salford and lives in Worsley, told the MEN: “I'm being portrayed in some quarters as the big, bad, evil bookmaker.

“But we will prove them all wrong. We will be the biggest sponsor of the horse racing industry.

“They have nothing to fear, I want to grow the business employing more people.

“Racing is the life blood so why would we harm it?”

The deal for the government-owned Tote signals the end of his seven-year pursuit of the Wigan-based Tote, which employs more than 4,000 staff and injects around half of its profits back into the racing industry.

Betfred beat off competition originally from 19 rivals to reach a final two.

And Done's firm finally beat off competition from Sport Investments Partners (SIP), a consortium led by former British Horseracing Authority chairman Martin Broughton.

Warrington-based Betfred was co-founded by current chief executive Fred from a single shop in Salford in 1967.

He now has a nationwide chain of 840 betting shops, with £4bn wagered in bets each year.

Excluding debt and pension contributions, the value to be paid to the government by Betfred is more than £180m.

This sum will be split equally between the taxpayer and the racing industry, while Betfred has committed to commercial payments to racing of £11m to March 2012 and an expected £9m a year over the following six years.

Betfred will receive an exclusive seven-year licence to operate pool betting operations on all UK racecourses, where the Tote brand will remain.

The deal comes after more than a decade of wrangling and false starts over the privatisation of the Tote, which was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1928.

The coalition government started the attempt to offload it into private hands at last June's Budget.

Gambling and racing minister John Penrose said the government had “bent over backwards to deliver a good deal for racing”.

He added: “Most people can't understand why, in the modern world, the government should be even part owner of a bookie.

“So we pledged last year to end years of dithering and resolve the future of the Tote, and today we have done just that.”

Done heard the news he'd won while on a beach in Tuscany.

He immediately made flew back to London for the confirmation announcement yesterday morning.

Seconds after getting off a private jet in Kent, Done added: “Business comes first, holidays can wait.”

“Now it is a question of integrating the two organisations and I have set a deadline that everything will be in place by January next year.

“I'm looking forward to meeting the Tote people and I can say for certain it is not going to be an us and them situation.

“I feel very proud. It has been a long slog but I have enjoyed 95 per cent of the process.

“The bit I have not enjoyed is people who don't know me having a go. I'm biting my tongue on that but this has been a case of the flat caps verses the top hats and the whippets have won.

“Of course money has had to be borrowed but there is nothing wrong with that.

“We are ambitious, I'm ambitious. We now employ 8,000 people and with growth comes more employment.

“How am I going to celebrate? Well first I will be ringing all those people who have helped me pull off the biggest deal of my career then I will book a restaurant and have a bloody good drink.”

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