Horserace Betting Levy – Consultation Outcome

In 2014 and 2015, the Government issued three consultations dealing with the horserace betting levy:

• Extending the Horserace Betting Levy;
• Modernising the Horserace Betting Levy; and
• Horserace Betting Right.

Summaries of the responses to those consultations have now been published in a new report along with further detail of the new funding system announced earlier this month.

The new scheme will apply to all classes of operators who take bets on British racing. All operators, no matter where they are based, that benefit from British racing will be required to contribute to the industry.

The anticipated timescales as stated in the new report are as follows:

• spring 2016 - period of consultation with betting and racing industries to inform the level of contributions from betting.
• summer/ autumn 2016 - State aid notification process with the European Commission.
• end 2016 - Statutory Instrument and full impact assessment published.
• April 2017 - new funding model comes into force.

Further, the independent report commissioned in August 2015 to consider the funding of horseracing is due to report to Government later this month.

The report can be found here

We will keep you updated.