The Biggest Horseracing Story since Shergar, and yet......

No doubt said bookmakers will come out of this smiling and smelling of roses.......always have done, always will do.

Ban off-course bookmakers, for the good of racing, PLEASE.
 
The punters, and not the bookmakers, will at last assume their rightful position as the sport’s real customers.
Click to expand...
it will not be a question of how much the bookies pass on to racing, but how much racing lets them keep.
Click to expand...
British racing now has a firm commitment to Levy replacement
Click to expand...

God knows how anyone can draw any of the above conclusions, from what's essentially a reversion to where we were a decade or so ago?
 
Colin Phillips said:
No doubt said bookmakers will come out of this smiling and smelling of roses.......always have done, always will do.

Ban off-course bookmakers, for the good of racing, PLEASE.
Click to expand...
Would love to watch the BHA try and ban off-course bookmakers and given the employment commitment of betting shops etc. I doubt the government are that interested in banning them.
 
A simple 1p in the £ levy on all horseracing bets would solve the problem at a stroke:

No further negotiation, or govenrment intervention needed - ever.
No bookmaker involvement in rules or fixtures - at all.
Regular and guaranteed income for racing, in excess of anything GPT would provide in whatever format.
Freedom to build racing as a sport, rather than constant appeasement of those who take the most out of it.

Personally, a 1% tax on all my bets wouldn't bother me in the slightest, though it may well be that some bookmakers would absorb this levy themselves.
Irish racing has been run on similar lines for a while now, and (imo) it's all the better for it.
Sorted!
 
michael_o said:
this story has been live for 48 hours, yet nobody on here (apparently) could care less. An insufficient funding from betting is a problem which has plagued our industry for the last 20-or-30 years, yet people on here are only obsessed about what's going to win at the Festival. This new government initiative to replace the Levy has, I hope, huge implications for our industry, whether you're an Owner, Trainer, Jockey, Stable staff, or even just the occasional punter.

I congratulate Steve Harman and Nick Rust for the behind-the-scenes lobbying which was obviously necessary to secure this result. Surely, for every fan of horse-racing on here, this must be something to celebrate tonight?

Except maybe, the contributors to Talkinghorses.
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong Michael I am very interested in the news. Cheltenham isn't the be or end all, at all. I just don't feel as though I know enough to form enough of a judgement to have a rational conversation about it.

The big question I have off the back of it is; what implications does it have for the ABP and the cases currently being played out?
 
The question I would ask is, if racing is the second most attended sport in the UK, why do we need the bookies to fund it?
 
Outside the big Festivals, attendance money very likely wouldn't cover prize-money and track costs, reet. Additional funding (whatever the source) is needed to sustain the sport.
 
Back
Top