Flutter UK&I CEO dubs British horseracing “unprofitable”

Flutter Entertainment UK & Ireland CEO Ian Brown has outlined his fears over the state of British horseracing amid plummeting audience attendances.

Despite record levels of funding, Flutter’s UK&I chief said the sport has become “unprofitable” and insisted that those within horseracing must embrace significant changes or risk further decline.

Brown made his stance clear in a column for the Racing Post, in which he also calls into question the amount of prize money on offer and what the aforementioned funding is actually contributing to.

As Brown disclosed, Flutter’s customer and racing data highlights the size of the issue, with what the CEO described as an “ageing core audience” as a player base and no sign of a younger generation ready to replace them.

Last year’s average of 3,400 attendees per meeting was 25% lower than the average amount in 2000, though there were 10,000 races in 2023 compared to 7,400 in 2000.

Brown wrote: “Our data shows how declining prize money leads to 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 is a clear and concerning spiral.”

The CEO continued, pointing out that of the record levels of funding British horseracing receives annually, Flutter contributed £140m of the overall £350m total last year across the levy, sponsorship, marketing spend and media rights.

Despite the operator’s contribution to the sport, Brown revealed that Flutter “does not make any money” on horseracing, before stating that further funding is not the answer when it comes to resolving the sport’s structural issues, in his view.

“Our data suggests that the incremental value customers place on certain fixtures is much lower than what it costs us just to stream those races,” Brown wrote. “Indeed, what we pay as just one bookmaker is often close to the total prize money on offer. 

“We estimate that overall streaming revenue is around three times the prize money for meetings like Bath and Chepstow – and that’s also before the levy contribution – which makes us wonder where the rest of the money is going.

“Yet there’s a bigger, more fundamental issue here. We, as Flutter, simply cannot afford to keep investing in racing as an unprofitable product with a shrinking audience, where media costs are escalating at significant rates and the underlying quality of the product is declining.”

Brown did reserve praise for the British Horseracing Agency (BHA) and its efforts with Premier Racedays, a project which is already “outperforming the rest of the fixture list”, before issuing support for departing BHA chief Julie Harrington and her claim that the sport needs to “try new things”. 

Brown’s assessment comes just weeks after Flutter urged racecourse owners ARC to return to negotiations regarding media contracts between them, with the current deal set to expire in 2027.

In June, Flutter-owned brands Paddy Power and Sky Bet both opted against offering early prices for a meeting at the ARC-owned Chepstow due to this ongoing contract dispute.