51st Levy Scheme (1 April 2012 - 31 March 2013)
The Committee’s recommendations, submitted to the Board in October 2011, were similar in most respects to the conditions put in place by the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport in his determination of the 50th Levy Scheme.
Mindful that a second (consecutive) determination would be unhelpful for the betting and racing industries, the Committee’s recommendations drew upon the two key principles highlighted by the Secretary of State during his determination of the 50th Levy Scheme. First, that the Levy would continue to be payable only in respect of profits arising from bets placed in relation to British horseracing and, second, that payment for televised pictures of live British horseracing represent indirect payments from bookmakers to racing which should be taken into account.
The Committee’s recommendations, put forward on the understanding that the HBLB would seek to facilitate a minimum of 1450 criteria fixtures, an improvement in the average number of runners per race across all codes and afford bookmaking representatives greater influence in respect of the fixture programme, incorporated 3 significant changes to previous Schemes:
LBO Flat Rate Rebate (FRR)
The recommendations introduced for the first time a Flat Rate Rebate, applied to each LBO and deducted from a bookmaker’s liability during the year-end reconciliation. This figure was set at £400 per LBO for the first 30 shops in any chain and £185 for all other LBOs. LBOs open for less than the full period of the 51st Levy Scheme attract a rebate pro-rata. The FRR has the obvious advantages of being fair in application, easy to calculate and easy to administer.
LBO Threshold
A threshold was retained only for chains of 100 shops or fewer, to be applied to no greater than 30 shops selected by the operator. Eligible shops with a gross profit of less than £52,500* pay a rebated charge on a sliding scale related to the percentage by which their gross profit falls short of £52,500. This will continue to provide relief to small and medium sized businesses.
*Based on RPI of 5% on 31 July 2011.