Racing disappointed that no Levy deal has been reached
Press Release
- Racing united in not believing that the combined offers represent a fair deal for the sport in the coming years
- The sport had issued a constructive and reasonable offer this week
- Further evidence that a Horserace Betting Right is necessary
- Racing to work with betting operators willing to support the sport
The following statement has been issued on behalf of British Racing, being represented by the British Horseracing Authority, the Racecourse Association and the Horsemen’s Group.
No agreement has been reached this evening on a 55th Levy Scheme for 2016/17, with the matter therefore referred to the Secretary of State Department for Culture, Media and Sport for determination.
This is a matter of deep regret for Racing, whose representatives have worked hard – and in a completely united manner – for a number of months to reach an arrangement with the Betting industry on an appropriate contribution from the digital betting market, which currently costs the sport around £30m a year owing to the long-standing deficiencies in our central funding mechanism.
The formal Levy process and the discussions with a number of digital betting operators were this year interlinked, with the sport’s representatives having to take a view on what the combined offer would mean for Levy Board income in the coming years. The proposals were rejected because they would see such crucial income to the sport continuing to decline from an already challengingly low level, despite Racing continuing to provide and represent an important seven-day-a-week betting product.
To assist the process, and in the absence of an offer from betting operators with days remaining until the statutory deadline Racing had this week made its own proposals to betting operators which were entirely fair and reasonable, with the digital element pitched at rates considerably below the current statutory rate for such betting, and the level contributed by Betfair in a commercial agreement, and Bet365 and others on a voluntary basis. We also offered a further discount on these rates to betting operators who signed up in advance of the deadline to try and assist a sensible agreement being reached by 31st October.
