Horserace Betting Levy Board

The Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) has agreed a contribution of £28.1m towards the funding of Racing’s fixture list for 1 September to 31 December 2021, the period that comprises the sport’s Programme Book 3.

This concludes HBLB’s fixture funding decisions for 2021, with the allocation in the last four months of the year including £21.8m for prize money. This takes HBLB’s annual prize money grants to just over £78m, 32% higher than the £59.3m originally approved for 2020 prior to the disruption caused by Covid-19.

These 2021 figures do not include the sums for further prize money and regulatory grants announced at https://www.hblb.org.uk/release/682 as part of the £15m programme of expenditure from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022 following HBLB’s receipt of a loan from Government’s Sport Winter Survival Package.

The September to December prize money package is made up of £18m via the prize money rate card mechanism, £1.1m for the Great British Bonus and estimated contributions to the Appearance Money Scheme of £2.2m and the Divided Races Fund of £0.5m.

There are £6.3m in regulatory grants comprised of the standard £5.7m in Raceday Services Grants paid to every fixture and £0.6m towards specific additional regulatory costs associated with ensuring the sport’s compliance with staging fixtures under current Covid-related protocols.

Having funded Programme Book 2 prize money via a per-race rate card at 80% of the values in place for Programme Book 1 (https://www.hblb.org.uk/release/680), Programme Book 3 rate card funding will reduce to 70% of those values. Therefore, although HBLB’s contribution remains higher than usual, this change is the next step towards the Board returning to a sustainable level of prize money funding in recognition of racecourses continuing to increase their contributions.

Alan Delmonte, Chief Executive of HBLB, said: “This latest announcement confirms that HBLB will have been able to keep up significantly higher than usual contributions throughout the whole of 2021, as it has since June 2020.

“Even before taking into account the additional expenditure arising from the loan taken from Government, HBLB expects to spend around £78m in prize money for the year, 32% more than usual.

“Consideration is now being given to 2022, recognising that the recovery from the financial effects of Covid-19 will be gradual. The majority of the additional £15m expenditure package announced last month will be spent in 2022 and the Board will look to provide extra support next year for as long as this remains affordable.”

For further information, please contact HBLB Chief Executive Alan Delmonte on 07931 701536