Levy Board Cuts

[BillyHills]

Today the Levy board announced that they are not collecting anywhere near enough money (taxes) to be able to carry on for the rest of this year or next year without some major cuts to the Racing Industry. Figures of 250 meetings to be lost next year, prize money cuts if it isn’t too low as it is etc... Now for those that don’t know about the Levy board, they are an organisation that collects and distributes monies which goes towards almost everything you can think of that goes to put on a race meeting, the fixture list, racecourses, prize money, vets, regulation and integrity etc... So how much do they collect you might ask and from where and why is there a shortfall? The money comes from those that make any profit directly from Horse Racing, which is the bookmakers, now the important bit is ‘directly from Horse Racing’. Bookmakers have to pay 10% on anything they make over £90,000 profit per shop, but only on bets taken on the horses, any shop making less than that figure pay a smaller amount, Spread Betting firms pay 2%, Bookmakers at PTP meetings and the like pay just £200. Now Exchanges like Betfair also pay 10% but their profits are not on bets as such but on the commission they collect from their clients, although a big race can attract a turnover of over a £Million the profits made by the likes of Betfair are nowhere near that. This leads to a whole bunch of issues, firstly shouldn’t the exchanges pay more as if they didn’t exist more money would go into the mainstream bookies and they would make more profit and 10% of that would go to the Levy? Another point, surely many people go into the bookies in the first place to place a bet on the horses, not all i know, now these people while in the shop will then be enticed into having a bet of footy, cricket or even have a go on the Roulette machines, the Levy cant claim for that but the horse racing punter is lining the pockets of the same bookmaker? Years ago when I was involved in Racing, about 70% of turnover was on horse racing, this has dropped alarmingly now but the bookie still manages healthy profits, the introduction of the machines and an increased turnover in sports betting has taken over the market place but the attitude towards racing by the bookmakers havnt changed, They reckon they could still manage without racing at all and maybe they could, but for us who care about our sport its very dark on the horizon, well I think so anyway. Many people will agree that there is too much racing at the moment and 250 meetings could easily be lost without much fuss, but just think about the courses who will lose big Sunday meetings, evening racing etc... these courses can hardly make ends meet now, it will be a big blow and I can see some failing all together. And don’t forget the knock on effects that go to put on a race meeting, hundreds of people work at these tracks from the ground staff to the tea lady. What do you think about the loss of meetings, would you lose AW racing in the summer, have a few weeks break between jump seasons, have Sundays off again?? Its a difficult one. I cant believe the prize money will go down again, its a joke at the moment and owners just cant go on running horses for a couple of grand prize money for winning a handicap, how can they justify having a horse in training, we will end up with the big rich guys and small syndicates and nothing in between. Do you think the Bookies are to blame, should they be forced to pay more, should the government chip in? Whats the answer??

[TheRat]

Re: Levy Board Cuts The other side now is bookies are using horse racing to get people into bet then hammering them on the Roulette machines and other sports. The terminals account for around 50% of revenues now for most bookies. I think this is a good idea and needed to be done. Of course anything like this will affect racing in some way but there a lot of crappy meetings out there. I am to a massive AW fan either but some of the cards at Wolves are a joke. Of course a lot of punters love these meetings and there can be good value to be found in these races. In terms of the future of racing though prize money does need to increase. I am surprised there aren;t a lot more trainers going to France more for races where the prize money is a lot more. I read good article in the RP a few weeks ago about a British trainer who went over and doesn;t regret it in the slightest (name escapes me). You say prize money will go down again but I understood the money from the lost meeting will go towards bigger prizes in the other races, although I assume then it is just to help with the losses and the defecit that is now there? The smaller owners and trainers may struggle a bit more with cuts. It is interesting to follow RFC and their ideas and some of the opposition to it. You have all the traditionalists trying to stop what they are doing but it is clear that we need to change things. The change to decimal odds on course for example seemed to be a massive faliure. I don't really have any answers, it is a difficult subject and anything that is done will no doubt come under massive objections but this is a good idea imo