It's hard to offer odds on racing when there are no races being run. That's the conundrum facing British bookmakers following today's decision by the British Horseracing Board in conjunction with the stewards from the Jockey Club. The groups will suspend horse racing starting tomorrow through March 7 following a breakout of foot-and-mouth disease among farm animals there. The Irish Agriculture Minister made a similar announcement, halting horse and greyhound racing in Ireland.
"Although we have government and veterinary advice that staging racing presents a very small risk of spreading the disease, we have agreed this temporary cessation in order to develop our published precautionary measures," said BHB Racing Director Paul Greeves.
While horses are unlikely to suffer from the disease, they are considered carriers. Plus, racing horses are shuttled from track to racetrack, increasing the likelihood of their spreading the disease even further across the countryside. The disease is airborne, and could even spread by clothing worn around infectious animals or areas. While vaccines have been developed, their usefulness is quickly lost, and in the end, the only way to contain the disease is through wholesale slaughter.
The racing suspension could financially devastate many bookmakers, especially if it is extended beyond the current March 7 resumption of racing.
Cornelius Lysaght of BBC's Sport outlined for Yahoo! some potential fallout of the racing ban. "The consequences for the industry in terms of betting are huge, although people will still be going into bookies, there'll be no betting on U.K. racehorses," he said.
He added, "There will be a massive dip in turnover, and this on top of the worst winter in memory, when 89 meetings were lost to bad weather."
Even worse, he speculated that if both the Cheltenham meeting (scheduled to meet in just a couple weeks) and the April Grand National meeting was scrapped, "bookmakers would lose around £100 million."
Several publicly traded bookmakers have already felt the ban's affect on their share prices. Ladbrokes' parent company Hilton Group plc saw its share prices fall 2 percent today, while Stanley Leisure lost 3 percent of its stock price. Sportingbet.com, however, posted a 7 percent gain today after having dropped 22 percent during the last four days of trading.
The disease has also effected other sporting activities, according to news reports. Officials with the Irish Rugby Union, for example, have cancelled Saturday's Six Nations match between Ireland and Wales. Plus, March's Countryside March, which was expected to attract more than 250,000 fox hunting enthusiasts, has been delayed for two months.