Betfred have pulled out of sponsoring the Derby, citing Chancellor John Healey’s tax hikes at last month’s Budget.
The gambling firm signed a deal, in two parts, to sponsor five major racing meets in the United Kingdom known as the British Classics. Feature races include the Derby and Oaks at Epsom, the St Leger – which this year celebrated its 250th year this summer – at Doncaster and both the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket.
But tax hikes issued by both Rachel Reeves and Healey at consecutive Budgets have squeezed available spend on horse racing, resulting in Betfred – who are owned by the UK’s top taxpayer Fred Done – pulling their sponsorship.
A Betfred spokesman said: “Following successive tax rises for the betting industry, and in particular the increase to machine games duty at the most recent budget, it is with great sadness that we have taken the difficult decision not to proceed with a three-year renewal of our sponsorship of the British Classics.
“It is not a decision we wanted to make, but the cumulative cost of government policy has left us with no choice.”
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Healey announced a five per cent increase to machine games duty at the Budget last month, meaning a hike of 25 per cent will be implemented once Reeves’ previous 20 per cent raid is taken into account.
And it comes after Betfred pulled out of sponsoring rugby’s Super League, which has cost the code £1m per year.
Done told the Financial Times: “Do you think when there’s no betting shops punters will stop betting? The answer is no. They will find a way to bet, like in the prohibition,”
“There won’t be the controls [when those gamblers go to the black market], there won’t be the taxes and there won’t be funding for [horse] racing.”
Amy Starkey of the Jockey Club said: “While we are naturally disappointed that Betfred have taken the decision not to renew their sponsorship of the Derby and the Guineas Festival at Newmarket, we understand their reasons for doing so and know this was not an easy decision for them.”
“We are currently in conversations with a number of interested prospective partners that share our ambitions for the future of both events.”