BHB Chairman Peter Savill said today:
鈥淏ookmakers say that they want to negotiate, but what they really mean is that they want to dictate the price of our product. If they don鈥檛 get what they want, they resort to threatening tactics. Not content with taking BHB to the High Court and Office of Fair Trading, they now have Government in their sights.
鈥淗aving granted the betting industry a tax cut worth 拢250m, Government has every right to be annoyed. It seems that there鈥檚 no pleasing the betting industry, no matter what concessions they get.
鈥淭he comment by the Treasury yesterday that they found it amazing that bookmakers were talking of reimposing punter deductions should make the betting industry realise that it can鈥檛 resort to the easy option of putting deductions back on to increase its profits. It is interesting that the Treasury should declare that, since the introduction of GPT, things are working out exactly as expected.
鈥淏ookmakers will have to accept that there is a price to be paid for the racing product, and the price they are being asked is fair, reasonable and affordable.
鈥淎s for BHB鈥檚 commitment that bookmakers would not be required to pay twice in levy and commercial payments, we have always made clear that the offset would become effective only from the time that a BHB data licence was signed. This is a factor that every bookmaker needs to take into account.鈥�
For further information, please contact Alan Delmonte, BHB Communications Manager, on 020 7343 3318
