Horserace Betting Levy Board

The Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) has agreed to fund new requests from Racing for £3.2m of immediate and short-term funding.

Racecourse reconfiguration costs

The Board has agreed to fund £1.46m of one-off costs incurred by racecourses to meet regulatory standards and guidance for hosting fixtures in the current environment. A cap of £75,000 per course is in place across all racecourses meaning that 34 of the 40 racecourses with costs to date will be funded in full.

There is the potential for other remaining racecourses to incur similar costs in the near future and the Board was mindful of this in making overall provision for that possibility. 

A process for reclaiming expenditure has been agreed with the RCA.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) costs

The Board also considered and agreed the funding of £1.5m for PPE and face coverings used on racedays.

A process for reclaiming expenditure has been agreed with the BHA. This will be communicated to the industry by BHA in a resumption update later this week.

Divided Races

The Board acted swiftly to agree a request from Racing for additional funding of £259,000 for the month of September to cover potential divided races.

The Board will consider further a request for similar funding for the October to December period at its next formal meeting in September.

Paul Darling, HBLB Chairman said:

“The Board has acted once again in an agile way to consider and agree new proposals from Racing and we are pleased to be able to offer another £3.2m of support, now, when it is needed. We will consider further requests at our next formal Board meeting in September. As always, these will be judged against the context of HBLB reserves and cashflow and how we optimise our support for the sport and industry.”

For further information please contact Craig Pemberton, Finance Director & CEO Business Partner, at: craig.pemberton@hblb.org.uk