BHB DISAPPOINTED BY COURT OF APPEAL JUDGEMENT

13 Jul 2005 Pre-2014 Releases

Following today’s Court of Appeal Judgement against BHB, BHB Chairman Martin Broughton said:

“It must be recognised that today is a black day for British Racing because the Court’s decision prevents lift-off for a number of the sport’s plans to further increase its income. However, it should not be described as a crisis for BHB or for Racing. There will be no immediate damaging impact, and British bookmakers will continue to make payments through the statutory levy, which has recently been extended until 2009.

“Contracts between BHB and others – including bookmakers in Ireland – remain in force. These contracts are for the use of British Racing’s data, which has been and continues to be supplied. As for Ireland specifically, these contracts were deliberately drafted so as to include a specific provision in the event that a Court came to a decision such as that reached today and, indeed, payments to BHB must continue to be paid to us under the terms of those contracts.

“For the future funding of British Racing as a whole, winning today’s case would have meant serious progress. Instead we now look to Lord Donoughue’s Future Funding of Racing Review Group with a greater sense of urgency. The BHB Board will itself consider its next steps at a meeting next week.

“We have long believed that a commercial mechanism is the appropriate vehicle for funding British Racing. It remains right for us to have exploited and commercialised our product in recent years, which has resulted in substantial additional income for all the sport’s constituents.

“Today’s finding in favour of William Hill will affect all racing jurisdictions around the world, who were looking to us for a precedent.

“We will be seeking clarity as to why our database, which involves substantial investment in the obtaining and verification of information, is not protected. It would appear that most existing databases, and the protection they receive under law, have been neutered by today’s Judgement.”