British racing faces renewed uncertainty over gambling sponsorship and financial risk checks following Andy Burnham’s appointment as Prime Minister and the retention of Lisa Nandy as Culture Secretary.
Burnham has previously supported stronger restrictions on gambling advertising in sport and greater powers for local authorities to control the opening of betting shops and adult gaming centres.
As Mayor of Greater Manchester, he backed the Against The Odds campaign, which wants gambling sponsorship phased out across sport. He has argued that betting promotion has become normalised and risks encouraging people to believe gambling is inseparable from watching sporting events.
No new government policy covering racing sponsorship has been announced. However, a blanket prohibition that included horseracing would have significant financial implications because betting companies support race sponsorship, racecourses and terrestrial television coverage.
Racing’s relationship with gambling differs from that of most sports. Betting is embedded within its funding model through commercial sponsorship, media rights and the statutory Horserace Betting Levy.
The retention of Nandy at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport provides some continuity. She acted as an intermediary between racing and the Treasury during the industry’s campaign against proposals to align betting and online gaming duty rates. The government ultimately rejected full tax harmonisation, but the sport remains concerned about the UK Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) financial risk assessment programme.
The regulator announced in July that it would proceed with the assessments, which use credit reference data to identify higher spending customers experiencing serious financial difficulties. The UKGC says the process is intended to operate without requesting documents directly from most customers and should not be described as a conventional affordability check.
The British Horseracing Authority has warned that the system could reduce betting participation and have severe financial consequences for the sport. Racing is also likely to seek different treatment from casino and slots products in any future debate over gambling advertising.
The latest UKGC survey ranked betting on horseracing and other sports below online and land-based casino games in its association with higher Problem Gambling Severity Index scores, although the data does not establish that individual products directly caused gambling harm.
Burnham’s government has inherited wider pressure to reform the Gambling Act 2005, including calls to give councils more authority over gambling premises and strengthen controls on advertising by unlicensed operators. For racing, the immediate concern is not a confirmed sponsorship ban but the direction of travel. A government led by a Prime Minister who has publicly criticised gambling’s presence in sport may be more receptive to tighter advertising controls.
The industry will seek an explicit exemption if Ministers move towards broader restrictions, while pressing for greater transparency over the effect of financial risk assessments on betting customers and racing revenue.
