HBLB and the Horserace Betting Levy: How the Funding System Works

Every legal bet placed on British horse racing generates a contribution to the Horserace Betting Levy Board — the statutory body that channels a portion of bookmakers’ profits back into the sport that those profits depend on. The mechanism is simple in principle: the bet funds the race. In practice, the levy system involves a layer of regulation, a recent reform that transformed its revenue base, and a distribution formula that determines how much money reaches Windsor’s prize funds, veterinary research, and racecourse improvements.

This guide explains what the HBLB is, how the 2017 reform changed the game, where the money goes, and what it means for Windsor specifically.

What Is the HBLB?

The Horserace Betting Levy Board is a statutory body established by the Betting Levy Act of 1961. Its mandate is to collect a levy on bookmakers’ gross profits from British horse racing and to distribute those funds for the improvement of horse racing, the advancement of veterinary science related to horses, and the improvement of breeds of horses. The board comprises representatives from racing, bookmaking, and an independent chair — a tripartite structure designed to balance the interests of the sport that generates the product with the industry that profits from betting on it.

The levy is not a tax in the conventional sense. It is a statutory payment made by licensed bookmakers based on their gross profits from British racing — the difference between the money they take in bets and the money they pay out in winnings. The levy rate has varied over the years but currently stands at 10% of gross profits from racing. The HBLB collects the payments, invests the proceeds, and distributes the income according to its statutory priorities: prize money is the largest allocation, followed by integrity services, veterinary science, and racecourse improvement grants.

The HBLB’s role is distinct from the British Horseracing Authority, which regulates the sport, and from the Racecourse Association, which represents the courses. The HBLB’s function is purely financial: it is the mechanism through which the economic relationship between racing and betting is formalised and managed. Without the levy, prize money would depend entirely on racecourse revenues and owner contributions, and the lower tiers of the sport — the Class 4 and Class 5 races that form the majority of the fixture list — would be financially unviable. The levy provides a baseline that ensures every race on the programme carries enough prize money to attract entries, which in turn ensures that the fixture list functions as a coherent national programme rather than a series of isolated meetings at the highest-profile venues.

The 2017 Reform and Offshore Extension

Before 2017, the betting levy was collected only from bookmakers licensed in Britain. Operators based offshore — in Gibraltar, the Isle of Man, or other jurisdictions — were not required to pay, despite taking billions of pounds in bets on British racing from UK customers. The gap was enormous: by the mid-2010s, a significant proportion of online betting on British racing was handled by offshore-licensed operators who contributed nothing to the sport’s funding.

The 2017 reform closed that gap by extending the levy to all operators offering bets on British racing to UK customers, regardless of where they were licensed. The change was achieved through the Horserace Betting Levy (Amendment) Act 2017, which replaced the previous voluntary system with a statutory obligation. The impact was immediate: levy income increased substantially, and it has continued to grow as offshore operators have been brought fully into the payment framework.

Levy income reached £109 million in 2026/25 — the highest figure since the reform. The record came despite an overall decline in betting turnover, which fell 4.3% in 2026. The paradox is explained by the structural change: the levy net now captures revenue that previously escaped it, and improved bookmaker margins have kept gross profits robust even as the total amount wagered has declined. Richard Wayman, the BHA’s Director of Racing, has acknowledged the tension: “There was much to be proud of in the sport in 2026. Attendance is growing, prize money increased at all levels. But horse population continues to decline and the betting environment remains challenging,” he wrote in the BHA’s 2026 Racing Report — a diplomatic way of saying that the current levy surplus may not persist if turnover continues to fall.

Where the Money Goes

The HBLB distributes its income across several priorities. Prize money is the largest allocation: in 2026, the HBLB contributed £63.2 million to British racing prize funds, part of the record £194.7 million total. This contribution is distributed through the BHA’s prize-money committee, which allocates funds across all tiers of the sport from Group 1 races to Class 5 handicaps. Higher-graded races receive proportionally more levy support, but every fixture on the programme benefits from the levy to some degree.

For 2026, the HBLB has committed an additional £4.4 million as part of a £77.1 million funding package that covers prize money, integrity, welfare, veterinary research, and industry development. The integrity budget funds the anti-doping and anti-corruption measures that maintain public confidence in the sport’s fairness. The veterinary allocation supports research into equine health, injury prevention, and welfare standards. Racecourse improvement grants fund infrastructure projects — precisely the kind of investment that enabled Windsor’s jump racing return, where drainage work and track preparation were partially supported by industry funding.

The allocation formula is reviewed periodically, and the balance between prize money and other priorities is a matter of ongoing debate. Trainers and owners argue for maximum prize-money allocation because it directly supports their livelihoods. Welfare groups advocate for greater veterinary and integrity spending. Racecourses want improvement grants to fund infrastructure that attracts racegoers and generates the gate receipts that support their own prize-money contributions. The HBLB must balance these competing claims against a revenue base that, while currently at record levels, faces structural threats from the betting-turnover decline.

Windsor and the Levy

Windsor’s relationship with the levy operates through two channels. First, the levy contribution to prize money supports every race on the Windsor card, from the Winter Hill Stakes to the lowest-class Monday evening handicap. Without the levy, the prize funds at the lower end of the programme would fall to levels that discourage trainer participation and produce smaller fields. The levy is what makes a Class 5 handicap at Windsor viable — not exciting, but viable.

Second, racecourse improvement grants have supported infrastructure investment at Windsor. The drainage and track work that enabled the jump racing return — and the subsequent figure-of-eight revert — were funded by a combination of ARC capital investment and industry grants. While the precise allocation of levy-funded grants to individual courses is not publicly itemised, the HBLB’s broader commitment to racecourse improvement is part of what made Windsor’s transformation possible. The grants are competitive — courses apply with specific project proposals — and ARC’s track record of successful applications reflects both the quality of its proposals and the strategic case for investing in a course with Windsor’s growth potential.

The bet funds the race. At Windsor, that funding chain connects every punter who backs a horse in a Monday evening handicap to the Levy Board, to the BHA’s prize-money committee, and back to the connections of the winning horse. It is not a glamorous mechanism, but it is the one that keeps the racing programme running — and without it, Windsor’s twenty-six fixtures and dual-code identity would not exist in their current form. The system works because it aligns the interests of the betting industry with the interests of the sport: bookmakers need competitive racing to generate betting activity, and competitive racing needs levy funding to sustain its prize money. The bet funds the race, and the race creates the next bet.