Horserace Betting Levy Board

The Horserace Betting Levy Board has today released its 2024/25 Annual Report and Accounts here, marking Levy yield of almost £109m, the highest since the 2017 reforms that extended the scope of the Levy to overseas betting operators.

The statutory Levy climbed to £108.9m, up from £105.3m the previous year. This increase came despite a third consecutive year of material decline in betting turnover. Higher than anticipated bookmaker gross profits in February and March 2025 in particular pushed income above expectations. 

HBLB reported total income of £113m, up from £108.7m in 2023/24, when taking into account interest on cash deposits, which helped to boost reserves to £58.7 million.

In her statement as Interim Chair of HBLB during the year, Anne Lambert noted that the Board was delighted to have been able to increase its grant expenditure on the previous year but noted that “racing is facing significant challenges”. In the year as a whole, average betting turnover per race was down by 8% on 2023/24, representing a 15% fall versus 2022/23 and 19% versus 2021/22.   

In June 2025 HBLB published a new three-year business plan, with progress to be reported in future annual reports. An updated summary of the 2022–2025 business plan is included within the Annual Report. 

The Annual Report and Accounts sets out in detail HBLB’s grants, with £66.9m being allocated to 2024 prize money, £19.4m to the sport’s regulation and integrity and £7.9m on a variety of other areas such as workforce recruitment and training, retraining of racehorses, national promotional campaigns and point-to-point racing. 

HBLB’s commitment to equine health and welfare also continued, with £2.3m allocated to veterinary research, supplemented by £200,000 from the Racing Foundation. HBLB continued to support the funding of various equine infectious disease programmes.

In his Chief Executive’s Report, Alan Delmonte emphasised that the Board’s willingness to support funding of more innovative projects such as “Project Pace” and “Project Beacon” illustrates that “if racing is to continue to be a leading sport and leisure activity, it needs to ensure that it is presented and structured in a way that is attractive to the modern consumer”. 

In response to the continuing trend of falling turnover, but taking account of increased Levy, the Board adopted a prudent approach to the overall financial position and revised its target reserves range from £21m–£31m to £25m–£35m, reflecting increased spending in recent years and the need for a strong financial cushion. Within that context HBLB has however already announced at https://hblb.org.uk/release/728 a further increase in grant expenditure in calendar year 2026, including £4.4m extra for prize money versus 2025 and £1.2m extra for regulatory and integrity services.