On-Course Racing Bets Hit 15-Year High Despite Online Slide
The Gambling Commission published its annual Industry Statistics report on September 17, 2026, covering the financial year from April 2025 to March 2026.
The data show that British racing's on-course betting turnover has climbed to its highest level since 2011, even as online turnover in the sport continued its longer slide.
On-course turnover rose to £270 million for the year, up from £240 million in the previous 12 months.
That is the strongest on-course figure the regulator has recorded in fifteen years, and it comes at a time when the wider betting industry is shedding jobs and shutting shops under rising costs.
Racing's Numbers In Detail
Online betting turnover on horse racing fell to £7.85 billion for the year, a drop of 0.4%.
That is a sharp slowdown from the near 6% decline recorded the previous year, when turnover fell to £7.88 billion.
Racing underperformed the wider remote betting market, where turnover rose 5% to £24.97 billion, and lagged football, where online turnover increased 2% to £10.15 billion.
Gross gambling yield (GGY) tells a different story. Total online betting GGY across the market fell 7% to £2.45 billion, but horseracing bucked that trend, with its share rising almost 1%to £769.3 million.
Is there live streaming of sporting events?
Is there live streaming of sporting events?
Is there live streaming of sporting events?
The Horserace Betting Levy is calculated as 10% of GGY generated from betting on British racing, so a rising GGY figure feeds directly into the sport's funding even as headline turnover falls.
Betting shops told a similarly mixed story. Over-the-counter turnover on horse racing in shops fell 3.65% to £2.9 billion, in a shrinking estate: Britain had 5,617 licensed betting shops in March 2026, down from 5,825 a year earlier, and other bookmakers have announced further closures since.
Readers comparing the best online betting sites for racing markets will find that shift reflected in how operators are prioritising their online product over their shop estates.
The Tax Question Hanging Over November's Budget
The Commission's release lands weeks before a UK budget in which Chancellor John Healey is reported to be weighing a further increase to machine games duty.
Modelling commissioned by the Betting and Gaming Council from EY estimates that such a move would cost British racing £40 million.
Last year's tax rises, introduced by then chancellor Rachel Reeves, are still working through the industry: Entain, the owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, said on September 16, 2026, that up to 400 jobs are at risk, following comparable job cuts already announced by other major bookmakers.
The BGC estimates 11,000 industry roles have been lost since last year's budget, and racing's own finances have absorbed an estimated £17 million a year in lost levy income tied to roughly 600 shop closures.
The Bigger Picture
Across the whole customer-facing gambling industry, the Commission recorded total GGY of £17.5 billion for the year, a 4.4% increase on the previous 12 months.
Stripping out lotteries, the figure was £13.2 billion, up 4.7%. The Remote Casino, Betting and Bingo sector grew fastest, up 6.9% to £8.3 billion, while land-based sectors combined rose 1.1% to £4.9 billion.
"The market shifts that we see in industry data trends, and this year is no different, are complex and will be down to a mix of factors that need more than one source to unpick," said Ben Haden, the Gambling Commission's Director of Research and Policy.
"I welcome our capacity to publish industry data alongside the Gambling Survey for Great Britain to encourage and assist in the consideration of key questions from these different perspectives."
With the Budget still weeks away, racing's finances now hinge on a straightforward trade-off: on-course attendance and betting are giving the sport its healthiest live-turnover figures in over a decade, but that boost has to offset a shrinking shop estate and the prospect of a fresh tax hit.
Anyone following the market can track how operators respond to that pressure through gambling.com's own news coverage of the sector in the coming weeks.
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