The leadership of the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) has been temporarily solidified as the sport navigates a changing commercial and regulatory landscape.
Anne Lambert CMG has been named the interim Chair of the HBLB by Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy, today (16 September). She will be tasked with overseeing and steering the HBLB’s government-mandated mission until a permanent Chair is chosen.
The HBLB is a public body of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) tasked with collecting annual levy payments from British licensed betting and gaming companies and directing this funding into the horse racing sector.
Horse racing is heavily dependent on the betting levy for income, alongside media rights payments and sponsorship activity, the latter also using commercial arrangements with betting operators.
The betting levy stood at £90m in 2021/22, £100m in 2022/23 and £105m in 2023/24, marking a steady improvement against the difficulties of the COVID-19 era. The 2019/20 and 2020/21 cycles saw levy payments drop due to the suspension of horse racing under lockdown conditions, and the subsequent fall in betting volume on the sport.
Due to the closure of racetracks, this era also saw horse racing lose out on valuable race day income and media rights payments. The sport has been calling for an overhaul of the levy over the following years, but has not been overly satisfied with the government’s progress on this matter.
“We remain concerned that there is no update on the government’s review of the Levy, promised more than a year ago, and the threat that represents to racing’s financial well-being,” Julie Harrington, former CEO of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), said in May.
Alongside other government-mandated projects, the levy review was likely paused during the July general election. Some sporting legislation and political projects, like the Football Governance Bill, have since resumed or been reintroduced under the newish Labour government. Horse racing is likely hoping for the same thing to happen to the levy review.
Lambert comes into her role as Chair replacing Paul Darling, who passed away in August 2024.
She has been a board member of the HBLB since 1 April 2020, and brings additional governmental experience to the role from tenures at the Civil Aviation Authority and Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and as the UK’s deputy Permanent Representative to the EU from 2003-2008.
