Bookmaker Sponsorship Of British Racing Falls 17% In A Year
Bookmaker sponsorship of British horse racing has dropped by 17% in the year since higher taxes were imposed in last year's budget, according to analysis by the Racing Post.
Major firms, including Bet365, Betfred and Flutter Entertainment, have all cut sponsorship spend by more than 15%, while Unibet is down 18.5% and JenningsBet has fallen 33%.
Star Sports and BetGoodwin, two smaller operators, have both cut sponsorship by more than 80% over the same period.
Prize Money And All-Weather Racing Hit Hardest
The cutbacks have fed directly into prize money. Total purses for bookmaker-backed races fell by 2.5% in 2026, a drop that widens to 5.5% once adjusted for inflation.
All-weather racing has absorbed the heaviest hit: 58.2% of 2026 races carried bookmaker sponsorship, down from 73.3% in 2025. Wolverhampton, Southwell, Lingfield and Newcastle all recorded sponsorship declines, with Wolverhampton leading the way with a 15.6 percentage-point fall.
The Racing Post's analysis covered every race title from January 1 to September 28 across 2025 and 2026, classifying each backer as a bookmaker, a gambling-related firm, another commercial sponsor, a private or personal backer, or a contra or no-sponsorship deal.
Races carrying no sponsorship or a contra arrangement rose 16%, while private and other commercial sponsorship grew just three per cent, nowhere near enough to offset the bookmaker pullback.
Tax Rises Accelerated The Pullback
The decline accelerated sharply once the new 40% remote gaming duty took effect in April 2026, with bookmaker sponsorships falling by an average of 8.8% per month compared with the same period a year earlier.
A further 25% duty on remote betting is due to arrive in April 2027.
Bet365, which has ended long-running sponsorships of Newmarket's Craven meeting and the Lancashire Oaks and was a prominent backer at Chelmsford, has cut its race sponsorships by 77% in 2026.
Another Tax Rise Could Deepen The Squeeze
The figures land as British racing braces for a possible second funding shock in this month's budget.
Analysis by Regulus Partners estimates the sport could lose £92 million a year, roughly a third of its betting-related revenue, if machine games duty is doubled from its current 20% rate.
Fans following the betting sites covering British racing, including long-time sponsors such as Bet365, can track how far operators are willing to keep backing the sport as the next budget decision approaches, with free bets offers likely to be one of the more visible battlegrounds if sponsorship budgets keep shrinking.
