THE MONEY MAKERS

The funders of the Greyhound Racing Industry in the UK are the bookmakers and a massive £2.5 billion is staked annually on live greyhound racing.  The bookmakers pay a voluntary levy of 0.6% of the total amount of all bets placed on greyhound racing to the British Greyhound Racing Fund. In 2007 the monies paid by the bookmakers in respect of this levy, was £11.24 million. Approximately 17% of all bookmakers choose not to pay anything at all.

The six major contributing bookmakers are Tote Bookmakers, Coral Racing, William Hill, Betfair, Bet 365 and Ladbrokes. William Hills, Coral Racing and Ladbrokes each own 2 stadia whilst the remainder 24 stadia are company or privately owned. 

One of the biggest winners in greyhound racing is the government who not only collect the taxes generated by this multi billion pound industry but they also make huge profits directly from the government owned Tote Bookmakers. In 2007 the government, through the Tote, declared gross profits of £19.4 million on greyhound racing, which clearly highlights the capacity of the government’s financial interest and commercial involvement within the industry.

At least 99% of all bets staked on greyhound racing are through the Bookmakers Afternoon Betting Service (BAGS) meetings, which are televised to the betting shops and streamed online to the internet for betting purposes only. BAGS meetings are not held as social events and their sole purpose is to supply a betting medium for gamblers and of course, to make huge profits for the ‘money makers’. Approximately 3,000 greyhounds are needed to perform every week for the near 70 BAGS races held every day.

Despite earning millions of pounds profits for the bookmakers, the BAGS greyhound is the most exploited and abused of all racing greyhounds. Costing on average just £100, these greyhounds are afforded very little, if any, in the way of welfare and if injured or too slow, they are as dispensable as their price tag.