Madeleine Campbell joins UK Horseracing Betting Levy Board
The animal welfare expert also chairs the Greyhound Board of Great Britain’s Welfare and Veterinary Standing Committee.
UK.- The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has confirmed the appointment of Madeleine Campbell to the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB). Her four‑year term began on January 1 and will run until December 31, 2029, following approval by Lisa Nandy, secretary of state for culture, media and sport.
A recognised authority in animal welfare science, ethics and law, Campbell currently serves as professor of veterinary ethics at the University of Nottingham. She also chairs the British Equestrian Federation’s Ethics and Welfare Advisory Group and the Greyhound Board of Great Britain’s Welfare and Veterinary Standing Committee.
Internationally, Campbell is an independent member of the International Federation for Equestrian Sports Welfare and Ethics Advisory Group. She has previously sat on the British Horseracing Authority’s ethics panel.
The HBLB is the statutory body responsible for collecting a percentage of betting operators’ profits from bets on British horseracing and distributing that income back into the sport. For years, the sector has been calling for the structure of the betting levy to be reviewed. The matter was not dealt with during the Gambling Act Review that culminated in the 2023 Gambling White Paper, and remains pending almost three years later.
British betting operators are now particularly wary of any more rises in costs as Remote Gaming Tax will rise from 21 to 40 per cent from April 2026, and General Betting Duty will rise from 15 to 25 per cent from April 2027. Horseracing betting has been spared from the tax increases, but the industry also has to contend with last year’s introduction of the new mandatory gambling levy to fund RET initiatives.
