'Bold change is required to turn British racing around' - former BHA chief Nick Rust calls for sport to be more radical

British racing faces long-term decline unless the sport’s leaders are more radical with their industry strategy and work even more closely with bookmakers to maximise revenues, according to former BHA chief executive Nick Rust.

Rust said the threats posed by rising costs, international competition and declining participation and engagement were combining with the impacts of the gambling review white paper to leave the sport on a precipice unless it took a firmer grip of its future.

During a keynote speech at Thursday's Reputation Matters conference on gambling regulation, Rust told the audience he had seen encouraging signs about the ability of racing and betting to collaborate more deeply with the publication of the 2024 fixture list.

However, Rust, who headed Ladbrokes’ retail division before joining the BHA in 2015, warned the changes that had been implemented as part of the new fixture list were not drastic enough and greater action was required from the sport’s leaders.

He said: “Bold change will be required to turn British racing around. As well as attracting new consumers, racing’s leaders need to push to restructure racing to make it far more efficient so attracting and retaining owners is underpinned by much-improved cost-recovery rates.

“The fact racing’s tribes seem to be cooperating together on a strategy gives real cause for encouragement. However, I worry that the perennial structural issues within the sport may prevent it from being bold enough when change requires parties to move from what they may see as a safer, more predictable individual situation that they can control, to take what they may see as an uncertain leap of faith towards sunnier uplands.

“The threats to racing and its potential quickening decline need to be urgently addressed by racing’s leaders through a new paradigm of radical action.”

To stave off the threats to racing and move it into a more competitive position, Rust, who left the BHA in 2020, argued for greater cost efficiencies through longer racecards, regionalised fixtures and the development of infrastructure around existing training facilities, including the creation of small starter yards for trainers at all-weather courses.

All-weather courses should accommodate starter yards for smaller trainers, says Nick RustCredit: Edward Whitaker

Rust also said it was essential the sport pushed to secure larger field sizes, achieved through the reduction of the fixture list by up to a sixth. 

He said: “It means taking tough decisions over how precious central funding from levy and media rights is distributed – this inevitably requires a paradigm-shift in fixture and funding policy. Field sizes need improving, and cutting the number of races by around 15 per cent would restore average fields to their recent peak in 2014, not only improving variable betting income per race, but also, importantly, boosting prize-money. 

“Given income for the vast majority of fixtures is driven by off-course betting, it would make sense to improve operational efficiency of racecourses and participants by grouping fixtures by time, racecourse or regional location and, importantly, moving to nine, ten or more races per fixture as we did during the resumption of racing following the pandemic shutdown.”

While acknowledging the proposals to cut the fixture list would result in pain for some courses, which Rust described as “regrettable”, he said it was a consequence of the sport “needing to cut its cloth to suit its coat”.

However, by working more closely with bookmakers racing had the ability to refuel its funds, which could be achieved through a new media rights model based on races achieving eight runners, which allow for each-way betting on the first three, and bookmakers paying a levy on bets placed in Britain on overseas racing.

Rust said: “As part of a wider commercial deal, bookmakers could help racing to offset the impact of the reduction in races by agreeing to revisions to the media rights so that payments are weighted to delivering more races with eight, or more, runners and fewer odds-on favourites, with the overall programme better distributed and timed for betting.

“Betting could also agree to make levy payments to British racing for bets on foreign races, perhaps in return for the sport dropping its claims over a turnover-based levy.”

Rust added there had never been a more important time for racing and betting “to work hand-in-hand” due to the threats posed by the government’s gambling review. Part of this would be to push the Gambling Commission to produce “a centralised player management function which first and foremost empowers all gamblers in Britain with tools to manage their overall gambling with licensed operators”.

However, Rust also called on the commission to engage with the dangers of the unregulated black market, and said: “The Gambling Commission says warning of such activity is considerably overblown, and implies it is industry propaganda. If such ignorance and complacency mean the commission does not make adequate plans to deal with this black market, its position will in itself cause preventable harm to those at risk of problem gambling. 

“We are still in the early stages of affordability checks, with customers not yet exhausting all their licensed options. But just Google ‘non-Gamstop sites’ and see how many black market options are available.

“The Gambling Commission must be encouraged to think again and improve the efficacy of its policies to protect the vulnerable while also ensuring maximum utility for the vast majority of consumers who are at low or no risk of harm. The checks are happening already and the clock is ticking for racing’s survival.”

Read more . . .

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