Midday at Beverley racecourse and bookmaker Keith Johnson is waiting to find out which pitch he can get in the betting ring.

He owns position number nine on the bookmakers’ list - the pecking order used to decide who goes where.

The closer a pitch is to the finishing post, the greater the revenue for the bookmaker is likely to be. And this morning, given everyone above him on the list has turned up, Mr Johnson gets a pitch around 30 metres from the line.

But this is his swansong at Beverley. “I’m selling the list position now before it becomes worthless,” he says.

List positions have been bought and sold for the last 10 years. But, because of what MPs and bookmakers call a “loophole” in the Gambling Act, the Racecourse Association (RCA) says it will not recognise them from September 2012.

In other words, racecourses intend to tear the lists up and negotiate new commercial agreements. For the bookmakers, it would mean writing off assets which two years ago were valued at £100m.

For punters, it could lead to a less colourful racecourse scene. Smaller, independent bookies fear they’ll be pushed out by bigger off-course operators.
‘Lot of talk’

“When we heard the RCA’s intentions we were absolutely stunned,” says Mr Johnson, who has spent more than £1m on 32 list positions.
“I could see that my future and my family’s future was in jeopardy.

“Before I invested any of my money I was given assurances that should I buy any of these pitches they would be mine forever, in perpetuity.”

In the last year, as Director of the Federation of Racecourse Bookmakers (FRB), he has travelled from his home in the Yorkshire Dales to 80 meetings with MPs and racecourse executives, 65 of them in London. He has clocked up 40,000 miles and sent 2,000 emails.

“There’s been a lot of talk, but nothing’s happened,” he says. “We await proposals from the RCA to our members.”

“A lot of talk” means two parliamentary debates, a Department of Culture, Media and Sport select committee inquiry and seven meetings of a working group convened by the sports minister, Gerry Sutcliffe.

The sticking point is one of tenure. The RCA says it is willing to extend tenure to 2032, but on terms which the bookies won’t accept. The FRB says it will only accept 99-year leases.

‘Invested everything’

At Beverley, the bookmakers are frustrated. ”We’ve spent just over £250,000 on pitches. Who knows what they are worth now - certainly nowhere near that,” says Andrew Geraghty of Geraghty Racing, Doncaster.

And Stephen Price, who trades as William Price, says, “My father, my brother and myself have invested everything. In some cases we’ve paid as small as £8,000 [for list positions], in other cases £25,000-upwards.

“Realistically, they are unsellable now.”

And they have the backing of politicians.

“The situation is the equivalent of owning the freehold on a home, only to be informed that not only has the freehold been rescinded, there are now only five years left on the lease,” Celia Barlow, the Labour MP for Hove, told fellow MPs in a Westminster Hall debate.

The body formed to do the buying and selling of list positions, the National Joint Pitch Council, which has now become the Administration of Gambling on Tracks also supports the bookmakers’ claims.

Its chief executive, Tim Moore, says the bookmakers have had a bad deal.

“We never thought we were selling something on a leasehold basis or which wasn’t for perpetuity. But we also never knew the Gambling Act was going to come along and would leave this loophole for racecourses.”

Negotiations

But the Racecourse Association counters that by extending tenure to 2032, every bookmaker will have been able to claim tax relief on everything spent.

“Looking at it from a financial perspective, they would have made a significant return from their investments,” its chief executive, Stephen Atkin, told BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme.

“The position was made clear when the sale of list positions started in 1998.

“In the auction literature at that time, and ever since, the word perpetuity has never featured in any document.”

But he stressed he was keen to see on-course bookmakers remain part of the consumer experience offered by racecourses.

Back in April, the sports minister recommended discussions go back to the local level. He asked for negotiations to take place at three ‘trial’ racecourses - Fontwell, Worcester and York.

In a statement to the BBC, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it was pleased with the progress and would be expecting progress reports from the three by the end of October.

But York racecourse confirmed it is still to meet with bookmakers. The Federation of Racecourse Bookmakers sent letters out to all UK racecourses seeking meetings last week in an effort to give the process fresh impetus.

So what are the odds of finding a compromise? Surprisingly, Keith Johnson puts it at odds-on.

“It’s in our interests, the racecourses’ interests and the punters’ interests - the on-course family bookmakers add a lot of colour to the racecourse experience, and should the family firms cease to be here all you’ll see on the course are the big national companies.”
(Source: BBC)