Sky Bet and Paddy Power boycott Bath card amid media rights row
Bath Racecourse operator Arena Racing Company blasts decision by the Flutter-owned brands as a “clear obvious breach of our agreement”
Two of the UK’s largest bookmakers have blamed media rights costs for the decision not to offer any betting on the Flat meeting at Bath this evening.
Sky Bet and Paddy Power, both owned by Flutter, said they had “reluctantly” decided not to price up the six-race card that starts at 6pm this evening, 3 July, and that it was a “commercial decision”.
This will be the first time the bookmakers – thought to be the largest and third largest in the UK, respectively – will not offer any betting on a British horseracing fixture.
“This decision has been reluctantly made due to the increase in costs associated with certain aspects of the horseracing proposition,” Flutter said in a statement.
“Total media rights payments from operators stand at more than double that of the Horserace Betting Levy – the industry’s direct funding mechanism – at a time when the funding of the sport remains a critical item of debate.”
Flutter insisted the betting giant remains a “huge supporter of horseracing” and said the group invested over £140m into the sport last year through media rights, levy, marketing and sponsorship.
While Paddy Power and Sky Bet customers won’t be able to bet on Bath, sister brands Betfair Sportsbook and Betfair Exchange are still offering markets on the fixture, with the latter used by many on-course bookmakers to hedge liabilities.
The 23 other bookmakers on the Oddschecker grid are offering odds on all six races tonight, leaving Sky Bet and Paddy Power’s prices conspicuous by their absence.
The spiralling costs associated with offering betting on British horseracing – including media rights to broadcast and stream races, and 10% of gross profits going to the levy – means it is becoming harder to make the product pay.
With margins razor thin, some bookmakers have watered down concessions such as ‘best odds guaranteed’ (BOG).
For instance, Sky Bet announced last January that BOG would only be available to customers who staked £30 the previous week.
Michael Dugher, chair of industry trade body the Betting & Gaming Council, took to X, formerly Twitter, to express his view that Flutter’s decision regarding Bath was a “sobering wake-up call to delusional and entitled elements within the sport”.
A passionate fan of horseracing himself, Dugher also wrote that the sport is an “expensive and declining product”.
However, Martin Cruddace, chief executive of Arena Racing Company (ARC), which operates Bath Racecourse, said he was “very disappointed” by the move and that it was a “clear and obvious breach of our agreement” signed two years ago.
Cruddace told the Racing Post: “We find it hard to imagine circumstances whereby the main board of a New York Stock Exchange-listed company, with a market capitalisation of $33bn, could not have known and therefore authorised a decision to intentionally breach a major contract.”
He added that he hopes and expects that “sense prevails” but that ARC had written to Flutter’s board to “seek certain legal undertakings to protect our and our partners’ rights”.
Last October, the BGC said its five largest members – Entain, Flutter, bet365, Betfred and William Hill’s parent firm evoke (then 888 Holdings) – were facing a record cost increase to broadcast races, with the bill for media rights set to rise nearly £30m year on year to £285.3m in 2023.
The trade body also announced, in May, that the Horserace Betting Levy Board is expected to receive a record contribution of £105m in levy payments from BGC members for the previous fiscal year.