Racing: Report finds BHB to be breaking competition laws

The scaffolding has been up around the building of racing for some years now, but a report published by the Office of Fair Trading yesterday threatens to tear down the support and leave the sport's foundations to crumble.

Most crucially, the British Horseracing Board, racing's rulers, have been warned that they are breaking competition laws in the way they run the turf, most notably controlling the fixture list and the availability of race data, the platform of the redesigned financing of racing.

Freedom is a modern keyword and it appeared again yesterday as the OFT stressed its intention to "increase the freedom of racecourses" and "open the market for potential competition in the supply of race and runners data".

This was great music to the bookmakers and racecourses which have been bound by the BHB's intentions to fund racing. For racing's rulers it is a potential disaster. Privately, they are cursing a report to which they have three months to respond. Publicly, there are grave tones.

"We are disappointed that the summary of the [Rule 14] Notice suggests that the OFT has fundamentally misunderstood how and why British Racing operates as it does," Greg Nichols, the chief executive of the BHB, said yesterday. "BHB, as the governing authority, has a crucial role to play in safeguarding the sport's integrity, representing and balancing the interests of its stakeholders and delivering British racing. This is not recognised in the summary of the Notice.

"BHB remains confident that, as a major British sport, thoroughbred racing complies with all competition rules."

In the run-up to the conclusion of an OFT inquiry which started almost three years ago and is now 12 months later than scheduled, the BHB said they were flexible on virtually every element under their canopy. On data – the ability to monopolise the provision of race-day runners and riders – however, there would be no compromise. This is where the two groups threaten to meet head on.

The OFT report states that the Competition Act of 1998 is being infringed because racing's rules "limit the freedom of racecourses to organise their racing, in particular by fixing how often and at what times they stage races and the type of racing they stage". In addition, the BHB "monopolise the supply of race and runners data to bookmakers by foreclosing competition from alternative suppliers".

Those at the helm of the BHB believed they had modified the OFT's position. In essence, they have been ignored. The regulation of the sport may be hugely different by the time another Grand National comes around.