Since horse racing began in Britain those running the sport have wanted nothing more from punters than that they keep turning up to make financial contributions by various means. Generations of officials would have been horrified by the idea of entering into any kind of dialogue with your common gambler but from Monday that attitude becomes a thing of the past as the first step is taken towards creation of a punters’ body that can speak truth to power.
Its provisional title is the Horseracing Bettors Forum and you could be part of it, if you have had a flutter in recent memory. It is being set up by the British Horseracing Authority, whose new chief executive, Nick Rust, was a career bookmaker until taking up his current position and is keenly aware of the importance of punters to racing’s continued good health.
On Monday, Rust will issue a general call for punters to put themselves forward for the eight places on the forum. No strict timetable is in place but the hope is that it might hold its first meeting around the end of August.
“One of the key things under my stewardship is to make sure that we’re fair, open and transparent and frankly in tune with our participants,” Rust said as he explained his plan to the Guardian at Royal Ascot last week. It is greatly to his credit that he is the first administrator in British racing to take such an interest in punters’ views but he turned down the chance to condemn his predecessors for not doing so. “I just don’t know why it hasn’t happened [before now] but let’s not look backwards, let’s look forwards and see where we can get to with this.
“I’ll be interested to see how many people come forward. I would hope a lot of people will.” This is a key point and anyone with the interests of punters at heart would hope for a large response, now that Rust has opened the door. If the forum fails for lack of support, gamblers can expect to be back out in the cold for a long time.
One of the targets Rust recently set himself was a 5% increase in betting on racing, which would reverse a long-term decline, and he is therefore keen to know what punters want, what would make them more likely to bet on racing more often. There has not been a body to speak for punters since the cash-strapped National Association for the Protection of Punters folded in 1999, so Rust is inventing one.
“We want to hear views on race planning, we want to hear views on information provided to consumers,” he said. “We instinctively want to provide more information to punters. The issue is making sure it … can be done in a way that makes sense and doesn’t confuse too much.
“But we want views on it. How much do you want? We want views on sectional timing, how valuable would that be? How interesting would it be? Could it create more betting? Is it just a niche thing? We want to get views from people who are either heavy or light gamblers or who are experts in their field.”
Rust promises that the forum “will affect BHA policy” and that funds can be made available for the necessary software changes if, say, it becomes clear that punters really, really want mandatory declaration of wind operations on racehorses. Rust’s team is so sympathetic to the principle of providing data that it is even examining areas over which there has been no public debate.
“We’re gathering information on things like how many shoes horses are wearing when they’re going out to race and there are some interesting patterns around that which we think the betting consumer should know about,” he said. “Some [horses] wear none and it’s not a rule of racing that they have to. There are a few runners with no shoes and two shoes are often worn, it’s quite common, particularly among certain trainers. Even nosebands and things like that, we’re going to look at.”
Resources will also be available for the forum to consult widely among punters but it will be a consultative body, rather than representative, at least for now. Rust is still seeking agreement among racing’s trade bodies over a mechanism by which they can reach collective decisions and does not wish to introduce a new combatant to that attritional struggle.
Is Rust not worried that he is essentially creating a platform for people who will often find fault with the BHA’s work? “One of the things I’ve had to learn very quickly in this role is that I have to have a much thicker skin, I’m afraid, than perhaps I’ve had to have in other roles. It has surprised me. In its own way, it’s quite a public job.
“I want to keep tuned in without listening too much to the criticism or taking it personally, because you’d drive yourself mad.
“I think, in this role, it’s going to be impossible to do things that please absolutely everybody. We’ve got to find the right balance between listening to people, making sure that they can say what they like, on the understanding that, I’m sorry, just because you say it doesn’t necessarily mean that every time it’s going to be implemented.
“But my approach generally to life is, where there are people who criticise but care about things … there’s always a way to engage those people positively. So I welcome it. They will only be critical because they care.”
