Anne Lambert named interim chair of British Horserace Betting Levy Board

The temporary appointment follows the death of Paul Darling.

UK.- The UK government has named Anne Lambert as interim chair of the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB), the public body that collects annual levy payments from licensed betting operators to fund the British horse racing sector. The appointment comes after the unexpected death of former HBLB chairman Paul Darling in August. 

Lambert has been an independent member of the Horserace Betting Levy Board since April 1 2020. She has also been a non-executive director of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) since October 2016. 

She previously worked for the government in the regulation of insurance, telecommunications, competition and aviation as well as on EU policy. She was the country’s deputy permanent representative to the EU from 2003-2008.

Anne Lambert

The HBLB operates under the auspices of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The betting levy provides vital funding for UK horse racing, which also receives funds from media rights payments and sponsorship from betting operators.

For 2023/24, the betting levy generated £105m, up from £90m in 2021/22 and £100m in 2022/23. The increase has helped the sector recover after the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw levy payments fall.

The horseracing sector has long been pushing for a renegotiation of the betting levy. However, the UK’s previous Conservative government left the issue out of the remit of its Gambling Act review and the Gambling White Paper. The new Labour government is expected to take up the matter once other gambling reforms have been concluded.