Civil war between bookies and racecourses places vulnerable sport on the edge

Major betting company Flutter have been locked in a media rights battle with leading racecourse management group Arena Racing Company (ARC) in a civil war that many in racing should be watching on with a sense of great dread.

Flutter are the parent company of Sky Bet and Paddy Power, two of the biggest hitters imaginable in bookmaking in this country. They’ve refused to price up three meetings at ARC racecourses (Bath, Chepstow and Lingfield) in the last couple of weeks, complaining that the poor quality of racing doesn’t match the price Flutter have been asked to stream the coverage. The big bookmakers are bemoaning poor quality, declining attendances and bad prize-money as making British racing an ‘unprofitable’ betting product.

If it wasn’t for a legal intervention by Arc chief Martin Cruddace, who has experience in the legal side of things in his time at betfair, then these meetings would not have been covered at all. Flutter decided to price the races just before the off and settle on the starting price only. More and more bookies are complaining about the cost of streaming racing and the lack of bang for their buck.

Invariably, those concerns are passed on to the consumer. Which in this case is the punter. Flutter need to find a way to make the game pay and if there’s no leeway on a racing media rights deal that runs to 2027 with ARC then average punters should be wary of worse prices and worse terms becoming more and more frequent. Value is already at a premium in ante-post markets and concessions such as Best Odds Guaranteed and extra places are starting, or already have disappeared.

Make no mistake, the golden age of online betting in racing is coming to an ugly end. Bookies are wondering what racecourses are doing with their money from media rights deals. It’s certainly not going into prize-money or improving the general quality of the product.

In a withering midweek opinion piece in the Racing Post, chief executive of Flutter Ian Brown said: ‘Our data shows how declining prize-money leads to a declining field sizes, making the product for customers less compelling. This, in turn leads to lower betting revenues, and so less revenue for the sport. It’s a clear and concerning spiral.’

This dispute is the tip of the iceberg. Racing has continued to wrongly sideline betting despite it being the cornerstone of funding the sport. The sport’s existence relies on investment from owners and punters. It’s easy to dismiss this as the big, bad bookies scaremongering again. They need racing and racing needs them but the evolution in the betting industry in the last 20 years has dwarfed that of the sport.

Football is a constant booming market for bookies, with options such as Bet Builders and the staggered nature of the domestic football schedule offering punters various markets in various matches at various levels. It’s a gold mine. Political upheaval in election years in Britain and USA are always popular, other sports like golf and darts are showing upward spikes in betting.

It’s not just sport racing is struggling to compete with. Anyone at an online sportsbook is automatically subject to the Casino alternative. A major flaw in government’s gambling policy has been the inability to split casino and sport betting, it’s an area where big bookmakers have exploited in the 21st century to guarantee huge profits. With the net slowly tightening over gambling reform, racing will be badly affected if a blanket approach to online gambling is adopted.

Just as Britain’s betting boom begins to diminish, the USA is opening its doors. Flutter, for instance, have just moved their operation to New York. This war of words between flutter and ARC could be the start of something hugely significant in racing.

Bookies also have a major commercial operation. They advertise themselves particularly well and strongly unlike individual sports. How many firms sponsor your favourite sports section in the paper? How many bankroll your favourite sports podcast? How many sponsor the biggest sporting events in the country? They invest well in these sectors and, like it or not, have a great deal of control in them.

Flutter has fallback options when racing doesn’t. This mini war of words between Flutter and ARC could spread into a bigger battle between racecourses and bookmakers. Racing will watch on with a sense of tread as this tussle could get messy and the bookmakers have more aces to play than before.

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK… GOLIATH floored some mighty reputations by easily winning the King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. The French raider was 25-1 but a n overly strong pace suited the hold-up horse and was delivered perfectly by Christophe Soumillon to prevail. Whether the ground or overdoing the team tactics at the front was to blame for Auguste Rodin, who knows. But the favourite was well-beaten on this occasion by Goliath who improved hugely on what he had achieved before.

SELECTION OF THE DAY… FLIGHT PLAN (5-1, bet365) found the Queen Anne Stakes too hot at Royal Ascot last time out but the drop back to Listed level at Pontefract today (3.12) is much more suitable for in-form trainer Karl Burke. He was second to Poker Face in last year’s Pomfret Stakes but can go one better today.