The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and Flutter UKI have opened applications for the ‘Future of Racing’ summit, set to take place at York Racecourse in 2026, in a bid to attract fresh ideas from tech startups and entrepreneurs to revitalise the industry.
Those shortlisted will be able to propose their innovative ideas to a panel of experts and higher-ups in the sport.
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‘At a crossroads’
“There is a need for us to think differently and more strategically about where the sport goes to from here,” said BHA chief executive Brant Dunshea earlier this year.
“We are very much now at a crossroads”, he added.
With racecourse attendee numbers dropping to 4.8 million in 2024, down from 6.1 million a decade earlier, the industry will be looking at ways to attract fresh audiences at the summit.
All bets are off
This latest announcement comes just a month after the sport made headlines for an unprecedented ‘strike’ – when horseracing was, for the first time ever in the UK, voluntarily suspended on September 10th.
The strike was in protest of a government proposal to harmonise gambling taxes.
Horse betting, which is currently taxed at 15%, would rise to the same level as online casinos and games at 21%.
Are the cards stacked against the industry?
The Gambling Commission has furthered its scrutiny of horseracing betting in recent years.
In 2024, it introduced a pilot scheme of affordability checks for punters who lost more than £150 in a 30-day period.
The scheme was criticised, however, as many refused to hand over their financial details and saw their accounts locked instead.
The Racing Post published research indicating a £3bn hit in racing turnover compared to expected turnover over 2 years, with many in the industry pointing the finger at affordability checks and a turn to the black market.
The industry may well have to wait until the summit next year before it can saddle-up for a comeback.
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Geoffrey H. Latayan 
Vivien Bernardino