British Horseracing Authority (BHA) Chairman, Steve Harman, is taking up a new industry聽wide role to engage with Government to tackle the potential impact of last week鈥檚 FOBT announcement 鈥� which threatens 拢40 to 拢60 million of income聽per annum聽to the industry.
Mr Harman鈥檚 role will change towards the end of 2018 to allow him to focus on the industry鈥檚 biggest financial priority: he wishes to work exclusively on Levy development with Westminster and mitigating the risks to the industry around the changes announced last week on FOBTs.
Steve will stand down from his role as BHA Chairman in November 2018 and then work exclusively in this new role through 2019. A formal process to recruit a new Chair of the Board will start shortly.
Mr Harman said, 鈥淭his is聽the single biggest issue facing our industry and I welcome the opportunity to galvanise support to get the best possible deal for horseracing.聽 This could mean a further reform of the levy to capture overseas betting and other changes we could seek to ensure that the funding of racing is secured for the future.鈥�
The BHA鈥檚 shareholders, the ROA, TBA, RCA and Licensed Personnel said, 鈥淭he potential impact of reducing revenue to racing because of the FOBT announcement is a major issue for the industry. It is vital that we work together across the sport and with government to make the appropriate changes to ensure the future funding of the sport鈥�.
The BHA Board has now set aside the Article 51 complaint against Mr Harman. Mr Harman has apologised for inaccuracies聽in聽his initial explanations to the Board relating to an article in the Times newspaper.聽 The Board confirmed that an聽independent review carried out concluded that there had been no conflict of interest.
A BHA spokesman said: 鈥淲e are pleased聽this matter has now been closed and we can focus on the BHA鈥檚 core responsibilities of the regulation and governance of British Racing.鈥�
