Bookmakers can expect to save £4,500 per year from May 2002 if taking advantage of a special offer from the British Horseracing Board by 14th December 2001.
After meetings with nearly a hundred bookmakers over the past few weeks and listening to their concerns, BHB will offer each of its customers a flat rate royalty of £3,000 for pictures and data on the first £300,000 of GB horserace betting turnover, rather than the standard 2.5%. This represents a 60% discount.
This discounted structure bears great similarity to the current levy structure where smaller bookmakers pay a total of only £810 for the first £337,673 of total horseracing turnover per shop.
BHB is confident that, through a competitive tendering process, the total cost of SIS, text and delivery will reduce from around £10,000 per shop to around £7,000 per shop – a saving which more than covers the additional £2,200 per shop royalty.
BHB Chairman Peter Savill commented:
“We are doing everything we can to facilitate a settlement of the levy and commercial deals by 31st October 2001 in order to avoid a reference of the 41st Levy Scheme to the Culture Secretary for determination. This generous offer to the betting industry hopefully will make Rob Hughes’s job easier as he seeks to secure a levy settlement at the same time as BHB progresses the introduction of a commercial mechanism.
“Back in June at our AGM, I said: ‘What we are particularly mindful of is the impact of our pricing policy on smaller independent bookmakers who, although paying very little levy, bear the brunt of the charges by SIS for delivering the pictures to betting shops. We want them to flourish under GPT as well as the big multiples.’
“Unfortunately, SIS’s new charging structure for their non-GB horseracing products not only maintains SIS’s inflated profit margin but will leave some smaller bookmakers paying as much as 7% of their current turnover for non-horseracing. Yet SIS’s bookmaking shareholders, Ladbrokes and William Hill, maintain that they cannot afford 2.5% for their core product of British horseracing and accuse us of excessive pricing!
“We encourage all bookmakers to write to the Finance Director at BHB to request a copy of our British horseracing rights licence which will be available at the end of this month. We will also shortly be contacting all bookmakers direct. ”
For further information, please contact BHB Communications Manager Alan Delmonte on 020 7343 3318
Attached are a series of tables demonstrating the impact of this £4,500 concession on smaller bookmaking companies, under a post-GBD betting turnover increase of 44.4%.
If you are unable to see or open the attachments, please contact BHB Press Officer Richard Hayler (0207 343 3335 – [email protected]) who will fax or e-mail them to you.
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