A contentious new report has caused the British Horseracing Authority to
place heavier demands on the country's bookmakers.
According to the report from the Sports Business Group at Deloitte,
horseracing earned the economy £3.7 billion in total, yet bookmakers only
contributed £118 million.
Second only to football in popularity, horseracing is considered one of the
UK's most revenue generating sports.
The industry employs 18,600 people on a full time basis and has generated
over £1.5 billion in tax revenues for the UK government in the last five
years.
However, the British Horseracing Authority argued that there exists a huge
disparity between the money generated by horseracing and the returns to
horseracing from betting.
"Deloitte's study reiterates that British horseracing, as the second biggest
sporting activity in Britain, is a significant contributor to the leisure,
agricultural and rural economies in Britain," said the Chief Executive Officer
of the British Horseracing Authority, Nic Coward.
"It also highlights the disparity regarding the returns to the sport from
betting compared to other major racing nations," continued Coward. "If further
demonstrations of our broken system was needed, we have the second highest
betting turnover of the major racing nations yet the lowest return by far from
the betting industry in our sport."
The report showed that while £12.1 billion was wagered on horseracing in
the UK, only £118 million - or 1% - was returned to the history.
This is compared to Japan where £14 million is wagered, with a return of
£741 million, 5%, to the industry.
