Pitch Battle

In 2007, the Racecourse Association (RCA) announced that from 2012, 59 of Britain's racecourses represented by the RCA would no longer recognise on course bookmakers' list positions.

These positions have been bought by the bookmakers on the widespread understanding that they would own their list positions for the life of the relevant racecourses.

As a result, the assets and investments of hundreds of racecourse bookmakers, mostly small family businesses, plummeted by 40% overnight to be rendered worthless by 2012 unless the racecourses would reconsider.

The dispute centres on four main issues - length of tenure, new betting areas, dispute resolution and commercial terms.

When the dispute first started, one MP described it as 'a process not of petty larceny, but grand theft'.



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