IRISH racecourses are “concerned” over how a drop in betting turnover on racing in Britain could impact media rights payments for tracks here.

But the Association of Irish Racecourses says there are safeguards in place to protect its members from severe drops in revenue.

The 2024-2028 media rights deal signed by Horse Racing Ireland [HRI] and the Association of Irish Racecourses [AIR] with Racecourse Media Group [RMG] and Sports Information Services [SIS] is believed to be worth €47 million over the five years.

Previous deals saw racecourses paid a fixed sum per race, but under the new deal payments are “largely derived from the betting turnover on their respective individual fixtures”.

Earlier this month Britain’s Levy Board reported a 20% drop in betting turnover in the past two years. It blamed the decrease mainly on the impact of affordability checks being carried out on high-staking punters by bookmakers, which appear to be driving those punters to either stop betting or take their business to black market operators.

Asked how this might in turn affect Irish racecourses, AIR chief executive Paul Hensey said: “It is something we are watching closely and are concerned about, but the figures being reported are arguably overstated and there are safeguards in place for our members.”

Reports of a £3 billion “black hole” in British betting turnover are exaggerated, says Hensey, as the figure was calculated based on growth continuing at post-Covid levels rather than the actual decline in betting receipts.

“The true percentage drop is probably closer to 10% and that is a worldwide trend,” Hensey said. “We’re seeing that in Hong Kong, America and Australia as well as in Britain. Increased regulation of the gambling sector is one of the reasons behind it and I also believe that football and casino-type betting are proving more popular than horseracing.

“I read a statistic recently that claimed betting on racing only accounted for 22% of turnover in betting shops, which is scary. Traditionally it would have been much higher.

“Betting turnover and media rights payments probably peaked in 2022. They flattened out in 2023 and declined in 2024.

“We won’t know for sure how much Irish racecourses will receive in media payments for 2024 until the final race of the year is run, as the payments are based on a percentage of overall turnover.

“We also have an equalisation fund, set up by RMG and SIS, to help bridge the gap if there is a deficit between what a racecourse received in 2022 and what it earned in 2024.”

RMG also handles media rights payments for 35 British racecourses and last May RMG said its 2023 payments to tracks were £113.9 million, down from £117.6 million in 2022.