Grand National Black Market Betting Expected to Reach £10M
Nearly £10 million is expected to be bet illegally on this year’s Grand National, exemplifying a worrying trend in black-market betting across the UK.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:The move toward unregulated gambling platforms could result in the UK Treasury losing up to £335 million over the next five years. Analysts are warning of record levels of illegal betting on the Aintree event, driven by a 522% surge in visits to unlicensed gambling websites over the past three years.
Related: UK Gambling Commission Tackles Black Market Gambling
Overbearing Regulations Driving Customers to Illegal Sites
Data seen by the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) indicates that around £9.4 million in illegal wagers will be placed on the Grand National alone. The organization said that this should serve as a “wake-up call for Government”, which must be careful of driving bettors to illegal operators by imposing “overbearing regulations”.
One contributing factor is the rise of social media influencers flaunting major wins, which experts say is enticing vulnerable gamblers to join underground betting communities on platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal.
Almost £10 million will be staked illegally on the unsafe, growing gambling black market at this year’s Grand National, fuelling crime, undermining player protection measures, while sucking vital cash from sport and the Treasury. The Grand National is one of the precious few sporting events in this country with the ability to unite the entire nation around a single spectacle. It is the nation’s punt, and it is being subverted by illegal operators offering illicit gambling to thousands of punters, many of whom are vulnerable to harm.
Affordability Checks Fueling Black Market Growth
While campaigners pushing for stricter gambling regulation say tighter controls are necessary, some within the industry believe that new affordability checks are inadvertently pushing bettors toward illegal markets.
Under the current rules, those who lose £150 or more each month are subject to enhanced financial checks. These measures were introduced after the publication of the UK Government’s recent White Paper on gambling reforms, which also included a proposed levy to support addiction treatment and research.
However, a report by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities suggests illegal gambling activity has rapidly increased during this time. Between August 2021 and September 2024, unique visitors to 22 unregulated betting sites offering odds on UK horse racing jumped by 522%. In contrast, traffic to ten legal betting platforms grew by just 49% over the same period.
In response to these figures, Hurst argued that “balanced regulations and a stable tax regime are the best defences against this black-market menace, which now poses an existential threat to British racing.”
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British Horseracing Under Threat
This increase in illegal gambling comes at a particularly vulnerable moment for the sport. Data released by the Gambling Commission in December revealed a £1.6 billion decline in online betting turnover on British horse racing over the past two years.
A separate study, commissioned last September by the BGC and conducted by Frontier Economics, found that 1.5 million UK residents wager up to £4.3 billion annually through unregulated gambling channels, including illegal bookmakers, underground casinos, and betting syndicates on encrypted messaging apps.
According to the findings, more than 20% of 18-to-24-year-old bettors already engage with the unregulated market online or through secure messaging services.
The Grand National, held at Aintree, remains the world’s most watched and most bet-upon horse race. According to BGC research, an estimated £250 million will be bet on this year’s main event.
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