Bookmakers cut horse racing sponsorship sharply after UK tax rises
Racing Post analysis shows a 17% year-on-year fall in bookmaker backing for British races, with smaller events and all-weather fixtures hit hardest as duty increases bite.
Bookmaker spending on sponsoring British horse races has fallen by 17% so far this year, according to analysis published by the Racing Post and reported by SBC News.
The drop follows two duty rises confirmed in former Chancellor Rachel Reeves' 2025 Autumn Budget: Remote Gaming Duty climbed from 21% to 40% in April 2026, and General Betting Duty is set to rise from 15% to 25% from April 2027.
Lower-value fixtures have borne the brunt of the pullback. The share of races worth under £10,000 carrying a bookmaker sponsor slipped from 37.3% to 29% when comparing 1 January to 28 September across 2025 and 2026, the Racing Post figures show. Races in the £10,000-£20,000 bracket saw their bookmaker-backed share fall by 3.7 percentage points to 27.3%.
Higher-value races tell a different story. Bookmaker involvement in races worth £50,000-£100,000 actually rose by 3.6 points to 48.6%, while the very biggest races, those worth more than £100,000, dipped by just 1 point to 47.3%.
All-weather fixtures have been hit hardest of all, with bookmaker-sponsored coverage collapsing from 73.3% to 58.2%. Flat turf racing saw a 5.5-point decline, while jumps racing held broadly steady, edging up 0.1 points.
Among the largest operators, bet365, Betfred and Flutter Entertainment have each reduced their sponsorship contribution to British racing by more than 15%, the analysis found. JenningsBet has cut back by a third; its chief executive, Greg Knight, has been an outspoken critic of a possible further rise in Machine Games Duty. Star Sports and BetGoodwin have scaled back their racing marketing spend by more than 80% year-on-year.
Some withdrawals have been high-profile. Coral ended its 52-year sponsorship of the Coral Cup at the Cheltenham Festival, while bet365 dropped its backing of Newmarket's July and Craven meetings along with Haydock's Old Newton Cup and Lancashire Oaks.
Racing is not alone in losing bookmaker backing. Betfred recently withdrew as headline sponsor of rugby league's Super League, a move Fred Done's firm attributed to wider cost pressures across its marketing budget.
The industry is attempting to respond. Racecourse Media Group has appointed former CNN executive Andrew Demaria as its first chief content officer, tasked with improving audience engagement and commercial performance for the sport.
A further threat looms in the shape of a rumoured doubling of Machine Games Duty. Fred Done has said that if the change goes ahead, Betfred would reduce its sponsorship of the British Classics, adding pressure on a sport already lobbying hard against additional tax increases.