BHA

Digger said:
The people that dont care are the guys sitting on stools in shops.
Click to expand...

and these guys are the ones that keep racing going as they pay levy and the shops they're sat in pay huge media rights to show the pictures. Lose them, we're finished.

Also on the offshore issue, the government are doing something about it: https://www.gov.uk/government/consu...betting-levy-a-consultation-on-implementation Consultation has concluded recently.

Still unsure what Nick Rust has to do with this, especially the latter.
 
Taxation of bookmakers in its own right won't help "racing" as such - that all goes straight to the government, unlike in Ireland where there are special bills and funding for racing AFAIK.

The government seem happy to keep the levy system for funding racing - outside of that racing is free to sell the data rights to whoever they want, primarily I believe through GBI Racing. The fact the racecourses are the ones who are making most of the money and who are seemingly putting little into racing isn't helping matters, nor are the trainers saying they want more ££££ when it's clear everyone is relatively content to run horses at the current levels.

Martin
 
As far as I understand, there's a 1% tax on horseracing bets in Ireland, all of which is returned to the sport. Not sure of the current situation, but the figures I used some years ago showed the same system in the UK would have doubled what the BHB was seeking from the levy at that time (as ever - they didn't even get that much).
Whether the Irish tax is charged, or absorbed by the bookmakers, I wouldn't know, but it's certainly boosted their prize money, and they don't either go cap-in-hand to the corporates each year, or face being told how to run their racing programme. UK racing do.
Suggested this some years ago on TRF, and most were up in arms against what they saw as an imposition, yet they've funded the levy for years and - under the current system - will continue to do so.
 
The current system won't go anywhere unless there is uproar from the general public and there's will from the government to change it.

For all that the levy system probably isn't perfect it's lasted for 50 years and the various betting agencies (Betfair, big firms etc) are agreeing additional deals to help fund racing etc.

I've long thought that the biggest "take out merchants" are the racecourses and their respective ownership groups who continue to declare profits without increasing prize money, would also wonder where the 5% the auction houses take on all sales ends up - certainly doesn't seem to end up in racing.

Martin
 
Digger said:
Nationalise the Tote. Zero tax. All profits back into racing.
Click to expand...

Given we've only just privatised the Tote, this fails the "pie-in-the-sky" test.

More generally, I do believe that there's too much racing, and that it is a part of the problem - though it's only a hunch. The argument that low-grade-dross provides the majority of funding is widely-paraded, but are there any stats to actually back this up?

The Programme Book (for Jumps at least), is often changed, but this is really just tinkering at the edges, and a deeper analysis of the overall profile from a betting perspective, would be illuminating. If there was a fundamental review of the Programme Book - both for Jumps and Flat - we may be able to develop a more optimised Pattern (from a revenue-generation stand-point) across both Codes, than is currently the case.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top