UK racing names first Authorized Betting Partners, other bookies remain defiant

UK racing has announced the first official Authorized Betting Partners (ABP) under its controversial new sponsorship rules.

On Thursday, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) announced that Betfair, Bet365 and 32Red had been officially awarded the ABP designation, which will be required as of Jan. 1, 2016 for any betting operator wishing to enter into sponsorship deals with the UK’s major racing groups.

The three firms had already received unofficial ABP status after agreeing to contribute a sufficiently large portion of their online race betting revenue to UK racing. Thursday’s announcement officially puts other betting firms on notice that their UK racing sponsorships are in jeopardy unless they too give racing its pound of flesh.

Terms of the Bet365 and 32Red deals weren’t disclosed, but Betfair has agreed to a three-year deal effective April 1, 2016. Betfair already had a five-year pact with racing that was set to run until March 2017 but the final year of that deal will be supplanted by the first year of the new deal. Betfair’s deal is based on a new ABP rate card, details of which the BHA will publicly disclose “in the coming days.”