Racing review recommends betting partnership extension

ntegrity Review conducted by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has recommended that the organisation extends its partnerships across the betting industry.

It states that such partnerships could, where necessary, be formalised by way of information sharing agreements to further develop intelligence and evidence gathering efforts.

The measure was one of a raft of recommendations put forward by the Review, which was launched last summer and spent several months interviewing more than 100 horse racing stakeholders including trainers, owners, jockeys, legal representatives and the betting public.

Its other recommended measures include the creation of a stakeholder integrity forum, improvements in the investigation process and the formalising of a new integrity strategy.


The primary recommendations are as follows:
1. The establishment of a stakeholder integrity forum to act as an advisory group, forming a united front to help keep corruption out of horseracing. Membership will include licensed personnel and other figures who have expertise and insight into this area. They will also provide visibility on the implementation of these recommendations.

2. Improvements to be made to the investigation, case management and disciplinary process, including providing a formal investigation charter to everyone involved in an investigation, at the outset, which will clearly set out their rights and obligations and what they can expect from the process, as well as a code of conduct.

The BHA will also develop a fast-track process to deal with minor or admitted offences outside of the full disciplinary process, with formal cautions and agreed sanctions. Also it will carry out a review of the level of penalties for minor rule breaches.

3. Formalising of a new integrity strategy which has at its core the objective to do more to educate and protect the overwhelming majority of participants who comply or are trying to comply with the rules.

4. Working closely with stakeholders to review the structure, composition and processes of the Disciplinary Panel, Licensing Committee and Appeal Board to make sure that the sport’s participants have full confidence in them.

5. Look at what improvements can be made to the way in which the media, racing and betting public and the sport’s participants are informed on what the BHA are doing to protect the integrity of the sport.

6. Extend our partnerships with other organisations across the betting industry, other racing jurisdictions, other sports and regulators in order to increase our access to intelligence.


The Review was led by the BHA’s Director of Integrity, Legal and Risk, Adam Brickell, overseen by Independent Regulatory Director Sir Paul Stephenson and "subject to robust, independent challenge" by a panel of experts from sport, regulation and racing.

Of the numerous supporting recommendations also published, one recommends that the BHA's Head of Integrity (Operations) reviews the day-to-day monitoring and analysis of betting and racing "in the light of the recent appointments to the existing roles of Betting Investigator and Intelligence Administrator".

It adds: "Once the development of new betting data monitoring software is completed this will have some impact upon the resourcing solution for the future."

The Review stated that, overall, a "good level of integrity" continues to exist within British horseracing.