THE Irish Grand National, Punchestown’s Champion Chase and the Munster National at Limerick are among the races which could lose their current sponsors following the recent doubling of the betting tax.

BoyleSports and Ladbrokes Ireland have informed racecourses at which they sponsor races that they are reviewing their marketing activity in light of the Budget announcement earlier this month which will force bookmakers to pay 2% of their turnover to the taxman from January 1st.

The tax increase, which was supported by many in racing, is expected to raise an extra €50 million in revenue. The racing and breeding industry is hopeful that it will receive some of this extra revenue. However, the betting industry says the tax increase will not produce a commensurate rise for the exchequer and in fact will lead to betting shop closures and redundancies.

TAX HIKE

Bookmakers plan to fight the tax hike and their spokesperson Tom McEnaney told The Irish Field: “BoyleSports has engaged with all the events it sponsors, including the Irish Grand National, and informed them that we are reviewing our sponsorships in light of the tax increase. BoyleSports are the biggest commercial sponsor in racing. They sponsor the Champion Chase at Punchestown and also sponsor RTE’s racing coverage.”

He added that Ladbrokes Ireland, which sponsors the Munster National at Limerick and many other races around the country including at Punchestown, was taking similar precautionary action. BoyleSports has 250 betting shops in Ireland and Ladbrokes has 140.

“Increasing betting tax by 100% was poorly thought out,” he said. “It will have a significant effect on bigger operators and many of the smaller shops will be forced to close. Even the larger operations will close some shops and their discretionary budgets, such as race sponsorships, will have to be reviewed.”

McEnaney said he was hopeful that the Government will reverse its decision “once it realises the devastating effect it will have on the betting industry.”

It is feared that up to 300 shops could close with 1,500 jobs lost.

The campaign being launched by the Irish Bookmakers Association against the tax increase will ask punters who frequent betting shops to lobby their local politicians.

BRITISH HIKE

The Financial Times reported this week that Chancellor Philip Hammond will increase the tax paid by offshore gambling companies in this month’s budget from 15% of gross gambling yield to 20-25%.

It said the move was estimated to raise about £1 billion over five years and help fill the void left by the government’s decision to lower maximum stakes on FOBTs.

Yesterday The Guardian said it understood the implementation of £2 maximum stakes on FOBTs will not happen until October next year.