Bookies aim to recoup €20m in fees

IRISH bookmakers being charged €20 million a year for lists of runners and riders in British horse races are suing the body providing the data in a bid to recover their money.

The action, involving 60 bookmakers who between them own approximately 350 betting shops, is being led by former Agriculture Minister Ivan Yates, chairman of Celtic Bookmakers.

He said he was “full of confidence” that they would win their case.

The British Horseracing Board (BHB) began charging for information from its databases in 2002 in order to fund the industry.

The charges were meant to replace the previous funding system, whereby bookmakers handed over a percentage of gross profits.

However, last November, the European Court of Justice raised serious questions about the legality of the charges in a judgement which saw the BHB pitted against British bookmaker William Hill.

That judgement is due to be considered by the Court of Appeal in London on June 28, which will decide what the implications are for English law.

But the Irish bookmakers believe the European judgement is clear, and are bringing their own case to the Commercial Court in Dublin, which is likely to be heard in September or October.

The claim seeks to nullify the BHB contract and recoup the estimated €44m which the bookmakers have already handed over.

The European judgement, Mr Yates told the Daily Telegraph, meant that database rights and exclusivities claimed by the BHB “are no longer valid”.

The BHB, he added, had “steadfastly refused” a request by the bookmakers to put their monies into a ring-fenced account until the outcome of the case was known.

“They [the BHB] should not be spending the money we are sending them, but they are spending it. They only have £5m (€7.3m) in loose change at any point in time but they are spending the money, which may mean we will sue the directors personally.

“The legal advice we have got fills me full of confidence that there can be only one outcome to this case.”

However, the BHB is equally confident it can successfully ward off the legal action.

“We have always been comfortable with the validity of the licences being tested in court, if that was the path that bookmakers wish to follow,” BHB chief executive Greg Nichols told the Telegraph.

“The licences were constructed with this eventuality in mind. In the meantime, the licences remain valid and bookmakers continue to pay under them, as they are obliged to do if they wish to continue to receive the data,” he said.