ABP policy is cornering bookmakers says Ladbrokers

While Betfair, bet365 and 32Red have signed deals, many remain critical, such as Ladbrokes.

UK.- Jim Mullen, chief executive of Ladbrokes has criticised the British Horseracing Authority’s (BHA) new authorised betting partner (ABP) initiative, under which racecourses can enter into commercial arrangements with bookmakers (including sponsorship deals) only if the operators pay an agreed contribution to the sport’s finances from their digital business on horse-racing.

At the gathering organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Racing & Bloodstock at the House of Commons, Mullen  explained his concerns saying that under the initiative bookmakers are forced to choose between “fight or flight”, and that this policy could damage  “intertwined” betting and racing industries.

“I am not sure that any issue which has led to such a heated debate or argument, whether personal, political or commercial, has ever been solved by increasing the number of verbal and commercial grenades being thrown from ever deeper entrenched positions,” Mullen expressed.

The executive added: “We need to look forward if peace and stability is to be achieved and grudges and niggles of past times have to be set aside. Progress cannot be made against a backdrop of scores, injustices – or perceived injustices – and beliefs in historic debts that have to be settled first.”