Petition - Bring back Mark Davies

I would second that; but I think he is now chairing an integrity in sport operation. Andrew Black and he had the right idea and the present management could look at the way they did things.

Mark Davis writes about his final days with betfair:

"It’s amazing to think that a year has already passed since I walked out of my office at Betfair for the last time, but it has. On 30th June 2010, at 7.30, I took my photos off the wall, having waited til everyone had left the office so as not to be seen walking out with boxes, and shut the door behind me, without saying a word to anyone on the way out. It was a sad way to end a decade.

The following morning, I put an e-mail out to my entire address book as I headed for a charity cricket match at the Bank of England Sports Club in Roehampton. It was about 8am, and it just said that I had left.

Ralph Topping was the first on the phone, at about 8.10am. “I don’t know what’s happened here,” came his Scottish drawl down the line, “but I’ve been around long enough to know it must be something.” I laughed, without otherwise responding. “Whatever it is,” he went on, “I wanted to give you a call to say that although we’ve been on either side of a big divide, it’s been an intellectual challenge sparring with you, and so it’s been a pleasure. I think you’ve been first class, and I want to wish you all the best in whatever comes next.”

There followed over the next 48 hours an extraordinary number of contacts from people outside Betfair – exactly 500 in total, it would turn out, either by e-mail or telephone – from people wishing me well, which I have to say was very touching. The principal disappointments were that I had no contact from anyone on the Betfair Board other than a single line e-mail from a more recent member kindly saying it had been ‘nice to get to know me a bit’; and that my invite to the ten-year anniversary party which took place less than a week later, organised by my team, was withdrawn on the grounds that I was no longer a member of staff – a criteria which I felt, in the circumstances, might have been relaxed. But on the whole, the reaction to my leaving was a great boost at a very sad time personally, even from people in Australia who had made Ralph’s opposition to my cause look like he was the biggest supporter of the position I had played for a decade, who sent me charmingly flattering notes wishing me luck.

BetFAIR board

David YU
Steven MORANA
Edward WRAY
Martin CRUDDACE
Michael MCTIGHE
Ian DYSON
Josh HANNAH
Fru HAZLITT
Baroness KINGSMILL

Bring back DAVIES!