Affordability checks are already hurting racing's income says new BHA chair

New BHA chair Joe Saumarez Smith has revealed that affordability checks on bettors are already having a detrimental impact on British racing's income.

He admitted to concerns about the subject as the racing and betting industries wait for the British government to publish its gambling review white paper, with the Gambling Commission pushing ahead with its own restrictions.

Saumarez Smith was speaking at the 2022 Horseracing Industry Conference organised by the Racing Foundation and University of Liverpool Management School at Newbury racecourse on Thursday.

Some estimates have put the annual cost to British racing's revenues of intrusive affordability checks on low levels of spend at £100 million.

Asked if he was feeling any trepidation about affordability checks, with speculation that the government's proposals would be published in the coming days, Saumarez Smith said: "I think we are quite worried. Partly because of the delays in publishing it, we need certainty because it is hard to make policies without knowing what the government's thinking.

"Second because the Gambling Commission are going ahead and, for their own reasons, implementing a lot of the restrictions. So, even if the white paper comes up with limitations on operators at relatively high levels by comparison with what was predicted, the Gambling Commission is now making operators put in restrictions."

Saumarez Smith cited the sample of betting and gaming operator 888 – which was fined £9.4m by the Gambling Commission in March – which has said it is in the process of reducing its affordability check trigger to £500.

888: fined £9.4m by the Gambling Commision in marchCredit: Mark Cranham

He added: "That's not likely to be in the Gambling Act white paper but as operators they are getting ahead of it, because if they lose their licence they can't take any bets at all.

"That is already having an effect on levy and media rights payments. We are seeing that in the returns for April and May and it's a big threat to the industry's revenue."

In his keynote speech to the conference, his first major public outing since taking over as BHA chair a month ago, Saumarez Smith said government had been impressed by racing's lobbying efforts.

"I have met a few government ministers recently as well as lots of officials from government departments," he said. "The one message that they have delivered is that when racing talks to government we need to do so with one voice.

"Those ministers and officials have remarked about what a strong campaign the racing industry has run around the Gambling Act review and the need for racing not to be inadvertently damaged by the proposed legislation.

"We will almost certainly see next week what the white paper contains but it is clear that government – all the way up to 10 Downing Street – has been impressed by how vocal racing has been on this subject."

Saumarez Smith also spoke of the need for the sport to improve its use of data, "as this is one of the biggest opportunities for the growth of our industry".

He added: "Pretty much every major rival sport has invested huge amounts in data projects, realising that unless they fully understand their customers and their behaviour then they cannot optimise their business, nor maximise their share of the consumer wallet.

"Too often the racing industry has filed it under the category of 'too difficult to do' because of concerns around privacy and GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] requirements."

He added: "A single customer view of both racing’s customers and the participants would give the industry a new depth of understanding about how people engage in the sport, what would encourage them to be even more involved and also to understand why people leave the sport, which we currently know far too little about."

Read more on the gambling review:

Regulator slammed for ramping up affordability checks ahead of gambling review

'Non-intrusive' affordability checks expected to feature in gambling white paper

Customers hit with affordability checks 'disappear and go elsewhere', MPs warned

Government to ensure affordability checks will 'harmonise' with gambling review

On-course bookies claim affordability checks will be 'logistically impossible'

'Hours and hours wasted' – the punters already affected by affordability checks

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