Bet365 has become the latest operator to axe long-running sponsorship deals with high-profile races in Britain as a consequence of hikes to gambling taxes announced in the Autumn Budget last November.
First reported by the Racing Post, the Stoke-on-Trent-based firm has brought an end to its deals with the Old Newton Cup and Lancashire Oaks at Haydock after 23 years, as well as pulling title sponsorship of Newmarket’s Craven and July meetings.
All these fixtures are aired on terrestrial channel ITV in the UK.
A spokesperson for bet365 said: “While these have been long-standing and much-valued partnerships, last year’s Budget has unfortunately required bet365 to make some tough commercial choices.
“Bet365 has been a long-standing supporter of racing and will continue to be so. It remains an important part of our business, and one which is hugely enjoyed by our customers.”
With remote gaming duty increasing from 21% to 40% from April and remote betting duty – except domestic horseracing – rising from 15% to 25% a year later, certain operators have warned cuts to marketing expenditure are needed to absorb the extra cost burden.
In January, Coral announced it would not renew its sponsorship of the Coral Cup at the Cheltenham Festival, bringing an end to the Entain-owned bookmaker’s 33-year association with the race.
Speaking to EGR at the time, Simon Clare, group director of PR and sponsorship at Entain, said the scale of the tax increases announced by the government meant withdrawing from the Coral Cup was a “public example of where we’ve had to tighten our belts”.
Since the announcement, BetMGM has stepped in to replace Coral as sponsor of the handicap hurdle on the Wednesday of the Festival. The brand is operated by LeoVegas Group outside of the US.
Bet365’s decision sparked debate in horseracing circles on X, with industry professionals suggesting those calling for tax hikes were warned an expensive product like horseracing would suffer as operators were forced to slash overheads.
James Noyes, a senior fellow at think tank the Social Market Foundation who had called for remote gaming duty to be raised to 50%, accused bet365 of being “entirely performative” with its decision.
Many of the responses to the Noyes’ tweet suggested operators had clearly stated cuts to marketing and sponsorship deals would be required to balance the books if taxes were significantly raised in the Budget.
After the Budget announcement, British racing’s main stakeholders, including the British Horseracing Association, the Jockey Club and the Racecourse Association welcomed the decision by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves to keep domestic horseracing duty at 15% for both online and retail.
However, one source suggested to EGR that celebrating horseracing duty remaining at 15% when taxes on remote gaming and betting were being hiked by 90% and 67%, respectively, was “myopic”.
Bookmakers remain horseracing’s main funders, via the levy, media rights and sponsorship, to the tune of around £350m a year.
The levy, which is the sport’s main funding mechanism and charged on 10% of bookmakers’ gross profits on British horseracing, generated a record £108m for the 2024-25 period.
This compared with £105m and £100m for the two prior years. Around 90% of the levy is used to improve the sport, mostly through prize money.
Despite the new fiscal high collected by the Horserace Betting Levy Board, turnover for 2024-25 was down year on year.
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The post Bet365 the latest bookmaker to end horseracing sponsorships over tax hikes first appeared on EGR Intel.
Online giant pulls longstanding deals with races at Haydock and Newmarket, citing incoming increases to remote gambling duties
The post Bet365 the latest bookmaker to end horseracing sponsorships over tax hikes first appeared on EGR Intel.