Is it Time for Horse Racing to Embrace the Rest of Gambling?

In some regards, horse racing is enjoying a resurgence, while in others, it’s struggling to keep pace with earlier breakthroughs. When the racetracks closed, unfortunately, we didn’t experience a clear-cut return to the old state of play. Instead, it’s been a slow road back, but one that the sport wrangled quite well.

Still, horse racing has a lot of competition for people's time. You’ve got other sports, more convenient home entertainment options, and more live events that get hyped up and sell tickets at inflated prices. To create more buzz at the tracks and reach new audiences, then, maybe it’s time for horse racing to step into wider gambling.

Attendances Up, Betting Down

A huge note of optimism that came out of the official report on attendance in 2025 was that, overall, the numbers were up. For the first time since 2019, the total eclipsed five million to total 5.031 million. That figure is a 4.8 per cent bump on attendances in 2024, with average attendances up by 3.6 per cent, too.

Target demographics saw their attendance numbers see a significant uptick, boding well for the future of the sport. Clearly, the hype around major festivals and the additional events that many racetracks put on alongside the races are helping to bring in the crowds.

However, horse racing and betting have long been joined at the hip. You go to the horse racing to bet on horses, and the tracks put on the races to cater to betting. Betting activity last year fell by 4.3 per cent on 2024 figures, but with 2026 recording a Q1 increase in attendances as well, perhaps the betting levels will increase.

Expanding into the Wider Gambling Space

Many onlookers will, perhaps rightly, say that online betting is hindering action at the tracks. With more people attending but betting rates going down, it’s a fair assumption to make. So, the sport and tracks should try to leverage the online platforms for additional sources of revenue. Official BHA games, for example, could be the way. Already, a certain legendary jockey has started to get the action going.

There isn’t an officially branded online casino game for the authority yet, but there is Frankie Dettori Roulette among the variants of classic tables at the online casino, as well as some slots in the same series. Around them, there's the official Breaking Bad Roulette as well as football-themed games in Goal Goal Goal! Roulette and Goal Goal Goal! Blackjack.

Diversity in the online space is craved by players, which is why seemingly odd combos like the Goal Goal Goal! games continue to land well. A BHA table game or slot game decked out with official logos and famous horses with unique racing-themed features could do rather well as a product and to raise the profile of the sport in Britain. With Frankie Dettori leading the way, the BHA could look to make an even better experience. 

After all, it’s a pretty massive space in the UK. Online or remote casino alone has a gross gambling yield of £1.5 billion, which marks 70 per cent of all remote gambling combined. That £1.5 billion GGY is just for the October to December 2025 figures, too. There’s a lot of opportunity in this space for those willing to embrace it.

Horse racing and gambling have forever been tied, so why not explore the options presented by the modern gambling scene? It could open up new revenue streams online or give additional reasons to come to race days if any tracks can set up casino rooms as a part of the offering.