RACING FORUM

Posted: **Fri Dec 06, 2024 8:55 am**

A lot has been written about the fall in betting turnover and the impact that is going to have on just about everything including Prize Money. The ‘so called’ 3 billion pound black hole. The blame game has started with a bang, its all because of the stupid affordability checks and the government needs to treat racing differently to any other form of gambling.
Well the Black Hole refers to a number that was concocted by the betting industry to represent current spend 2021/2 compared with expected spend in 2024 and was essentially the old number adjusted for inflation, which as everyone knows was running at an abnormally high rate at that time.
What idiot can possibly justify the position that betting on horses should follow inflationary trends. Especially during a period of low or zero wage growth and a significant cost of living crisis.
Betting is not essential, its 100% discretionary. It is not like the cost of food, or energy or other utilities essential for survival.
Under all the economic pressures that have been heaped on the population the expectation for betting turnover should have been a number less than that in 2021/2. The actual amount less is open to argument but who would expect it to increase by inflation. So the real Black Hole is much smaller its probably less than a billion but that is no reason to be complacent.
Of course the affordability arguments are pathetic too but how can anyone blame them for the drop in turnover, they were unlikely to have been widely adopted for much of the period of decline. I don’t see any reason to apply checks to anyone’s spending on anything, you certainly wouldn’t see any government proposing to stop people from smoking because they couldn’t afford it.
Racing needs to understand, that it is not going to get any special treatment from the government because it is no longer a significant political lever. Turnover is falling because the product is not good enough, there’s too much of it and it does not impact the imagination or ambition of enough people. Why because just about every thing the Racing stakeholders have done in the past 30 years has diluted the interest the sport generates.
Too Much poor racing, Too expensive, Too few people willing to invest in ownership, Too little investment in tracks and the race day experience, in short a complete lack of leadership and direction. While the great and good in the sport are still in complete denial nothing is going to halt the decline.