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Betfred says it has “no choice” but to walk away from sponsoring all five British Classics after the tax rise announced in the Budget.
Fred Done, the company’s chairman and co-founder, had signalled before the announcement that the sponsorships would go if chancellor John Healey raised machine games duty (MGD).
The deals in question cover the 1000 and 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, the Derby and Oaks at Epsom and the St Leger at Doncaster.
While Healey did not raise MGD to the 40 per cent some had feared, he did put it up to 25 per cent from 20, leading Betfred to claim over 1,000 jobs were at risk in their shops alone.
The company took on the Derby, Oaks and St Leger sponsorship in 2023. The Newmarket Classics were picked up the following year, in a deal running from 2025 onwards.
A Betfred spokesman said: “Following successive tax rises for the betting industry – and in particular the increase to machine games duty at the most recent Budget – it is with great sadness that we have taken the difficult decision not to proceed with a three-year renewal of our sponsorship of the British Classics.
“It is not a decision we wanted to make, but the cumulative cost of government policy has left us with no choice.”
Amy Starkey, who runs Epsom as managing director of the Jockey Club‘s London Hub, said: “While we are naturally disappointed that Betfred have taken the decision not to renew their sponsorship of the Derby and the Guineas Festival at Newmarket, we understand their reasons for doing so and know this was not an easy decision for them.
“Fred and his team are hugely passionate supporters of racing and have been great partners for our four British Classics, and we look forward to hopefully working with them again at some point in the future.
“We are currently in conversations with a number of interested prospective partners that share our ambitions for the future of both events and look forward to sharing more details in due course.”
