UK Working Group To Address Racecourse Pitch Battle
11 Jan, 2008
The working party has been formed on the direction of Gambling Minister Gerry Sutcliffe and will include representatives of the Federation of Racecourse Bookmakers, the Racecourse Association, and Arena Leisure, which owns a number of courses.
As a result of the 2005 Gambling Act racecourses took over control of participating bookmakers on their tracks but their proposals to re-auction licenses for what had been thought to be established pitches has created uproar among rails bookmakers. Many paid large sums for high-profile pitches in recent years, in the belief that they were buying them in perpetuity.
As an interim solution the courses, through the Racecourse Association (RCA), have agreed to abide by the previous auction of pitches by the National Joint Pitch Council (NJPC) until 2012, when all previous agreements will fall into abeyance and pitches will be “confiscated” and the pitches sold off.
The group will meet six times and aim to make it recommendations by the end of February 2008.
Sholto Douglas-Home is the racegoing global head of marketing communications and news agency Reuters. He is the stepson of former Conservative leader Michael Howard and his godfather was Frank Sinatra.
As a result of the 2005 Gambling Act racecourses took over control of participating bookmakers on their tracks but their proposals to re-auction licenses for what had been thought to be established pitches has created uproar among rails bookmakers. Many paid large sums for high-profile pitches in recent years, in the belief that they were buying them in perpetuity.
As an interim solution the courses, through the Racecourse Association (RCA), have agreed to abide by the previous auction of pitches by the National Joint Pitch Council (NJPC) until 2012, when all previous agreements will fall into abeyance and pitches will be “confiscated” and the pitches sold off.
The group will meet six times and aim to make it recommendations by the end of February 2008.
Sholto Douglas-Home is the racegoing global head of marketing communications and news agency Reuters. He is the stepson of former Conservative leader Michael Howard and his godfather was Frank Sinatra.