Reputational costs likely to grow from racing’s close links to gambling firms

Last month the Guardian announced a ban on gambling advertising, arguing it is unethical to profit from services that can lead to addiction and financial ruin.

You can maintain it is little more than a gesture since the Guardian is hardly the media option that springs to mind in terms of a cliched punter, instead more readily stereotyped as some woke vehicle for flinging “F is Fascist” bombs.

But it does signal growing public unease about gambling. When it comes to F is for flutter, the increasing trend is towards left of right-on. It’s something for which the bookmaker conglomerates have only themselves to blame.

Presented for the last two decades with a Wild-West regulatory frontier, they have so cynically exploited a small minority of problem gamblers that it has produced a rare consensus of distaste at their methods.

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Public kickback to their hard-sell tactics has been way ahead of the legislative response, although Ireland’s painfully slow implementation of an up-to-date Gambling Regulation Bill has finally got to a meaningful stage.

The sound of various sectors feeling their self-interest under threat suggests much-needed change is just around the corner.

Irish racing’s skin in the game revolves around a proposed ban on gambling advertising between 5.30am and 9pm.

That has produced warnings from both specialist UK-based racing channels, including Racing TV, which has day-to-day coverage of the sport here, about how they may be forced to stop broadcasting in Ireland, since a ban on advertising would make it financially unviable.

Such a prospect may not have a massive financial impact on Ireland’s 26 racetracks under the new €47 million-per-year media rights deal that starts in 2024. Pictures are still a financial bonanza in terms of streaming and bookmaker shops. But there would be a financial sting from potential sponsorship losses.

The real impact of both Racing TV and Sky Sports Racing not being available here could ultimately lie in a more intangible but still real blow to the sport’s exposure. Out of sight can quickly lead to out of mind in a crowded commercial landscape.

The anomaly would still be, however, that gambling advertising accompanying racing coverage would hardly disappear in some righteous puff of smoke were the proposed ban to become law here.

There is virtue sometimes in malleability when it comes to legislating for restrictions on choice

The media overlap between Ireland and Britain makes it all but impossible. Plenty here watch their cross-channel Saturday racing directly on ITV. Pretending the Epsom Derby isn’t sponsored by Betfred would involve various kinds of gymnastics that would quickly look ludicrous.

Effective legislation brings clarity, not confusion, and is usually best rooted in reality rather than dogmatism.

Gambling’s ubiquity underlines how the urge towards a flutter is just a couple of lengths behind ‘Fs’ like food and fornication when it comes to human impulses. No one’s pretending its virtuous. But for the vast majority, it isn’t some horrible vice either.

Racing’s link with betting is as old as the sport. In Ireland it underpins the finances around media rights that are so important to the sector. Worldwide that link is recognised in countries such as Australia, where exemptions from advertising bans on subscription racing channels are in place.

It might mean some people holding their nose, but it can’t be beyond the wit of Irish legislators to implement something similar for channels with a necessarily small and specialist audience. Any such nod towards compromise, however, works both ways.

Racing and betting might be woven together but it is in the sport’s long-term self-interest to straighten out knottier parts of the relationship. Nothing might date faster than the trendy but the new legislation indicates momentum on the gambling industry’s social standing is only going one way.

Defenders have a point when pointing to the dangers of this increasing reflex towards banning things. There is virtue sometimes in malleability when it comes to legislating for restrictions on choice.

But racing has to twig that being so manifestly in bed commercially with gambling firms is increasingly coming at a reputational cost.

The problems experienced both here and in the UK in attracting blue-chip mainstream sponsorship suggest perception issues already exist in selling the sport beyond its own constituency. In such circumstances, taking the sponsorship shilling from bookmakers is perhaps an inevitable easy option.

It is far from cost-free, though, as is clear from the optics of leading figures in the sport having such obvious business ties to gambling firms. No doubt it’s a nice earner for old rope. But apart from problematic implication for racing’s integrity it can also just look a bit skeevy.

Arguing for the sport’s singular status when it comes to betting advertising is a reasonable tack to take, for the moment. But for the sake of its own long-term reputation, it is in racing’s self-interest to get woke to the dangers of being seen as simply one side of the same coin with gambling firms.

[ Racing is publicly funded so why is this €2.5bn industry regulated by a private body? ]

SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND

Derby-winning jockey Adam Kirby has had a wretched season struggling with his weight but could get a welcome boost from Rohaan (3.00) in a Newbury Group Three on Saturday. The former dual-Wokingham winner was drawn on the ‘wrong’ side in Royal Ascot’s QEII Jubilee Stakes and subsequently was hampered in a handicap over the minimum trip. Stepping back up to six furlongs should help the veteran sprinter, who is high class when things fall right for him.

Forecast overnight rain will be music to Ken Condon’s ears as he prepares Moss Tucker (3.10) for the Curragh’s Sapphire Stakes. The five-year-old thrives on testing conditions and it could allow him to reverse recent form with both Art Power and Ladies Church.