It’s a serious problem.

What was once a great relationship between horse punters and bookmakers has suddenly turned rocky over the past few years. Things have gotten so bad that there’s now even a reported £1bn blackhole in the industry because people are betting a lot less money than they used to. Yep — none of this is pretty.

The bizarre part of it all is that British horseracing needs its punters. Without them, the whole system starts to fall apart, from dwindling prize money to empty grandstands. This is why it’s a really bad idea on the bookmakers’ side to keep ruffling feathers, as the long-term consequences could be huge if the current ongoing issues aren’t fixed. To put it simply, punters are not happy.

All of this comes down to two major issues, although there are other problems, as well. What are we talking about here? Slow payouts and affordability checks, both of which have caused major headaches for punters. This is especially true post-2020, as these issues only seem to have gotten worse since then.

Ladbrokes Refuses to Payout £274,000 from ‘One-in-a-Million’ Bet

Take the huge case between Ladbrokes and 25-year-old Dylan Phelan from the Republic of Ireland. Last year, Phelan placed a £26 each-way bet on two long-shot horses — Rocky’s Diamond (80-1) and Diamond Nora (125-1) — with zero expectation that it would actually win. Get this, though: it did, meaning Dylan was now owed a whopping £274,000 payout from Ladbrokes. But to nobody’s surprise, the bookie refused to payout.

The young Dylan then decided to take Ladbrokes to the high court. And after a year-long battle, he’s reportedly received an £85,000 settlement from the popular UK bookie, significantly less than what he was actually owed. For Dylan, it’s better than nothing. Ladbrokes, on the other hand, has taken another reputation hit, as they’ve since received an onslaught of pelters on social media following the court case. One thing for sure is that the bookie will lose out on customers following what’s happened — all because of a refusal to payout on odds that they agreed to.

Now, punters are doing everything they can to take back power. They’re following horse racing tipsters on social media, turning to AI predictive software, and also using resources like the BettingTools free hedging calculator. In a way, it’s become a case of the punters versus the bookies — and it looks like tensions are only going to keep rising.

Slow Payouts and More Frustration

The Dylan Phelan-Ladbrokes saga is just the tip of the iceberg. There are countless cases of incredibly slow payouts from other bookies, too, which you read about all the time in the news and on social media. Across X, Instagram, and Reddit, all you see seem to see from those in the horse racing community are complaints about slow payouts, with the Gambling Commission even reporting that it receives over 6,000 — yep, 6,000 — annual calls from customers regarding withdrawals, usually related to them being slow or the bookie refusing to paying anything out.

Why this remains such a problem is because it’s eroding trust between the punters and the bookies. This isn’t good for anyone, especially the wider industry. Once that trust is broken, you then see things like punters placing less bets and switching to the black market, which is already happening. It’s a fire that needs to be put out fast, otherwise the consequences could be devastating — and it will need to start with bookies paying out faster and fairer.

Affordability Checks Have Caused Major Damage to British Horse Racing

The problems keep getting worse for British horse racing, as the introduction of “affordability checks” at the end of 2024 — where punters must now undergo credit checks if they deposit over £150 a month into their sportsbook accounts — has led to even more anger from horse racing fans.

The reason why so many are unhappy with these checks is because of how intrusive they are. After all, no punter wants a bookie or credit reference agency to have access to their personal bank accounts, even if the checks are technically designed to keep them financially safe. Effectively, the introduction of these checks by the UK government and Gambling Commission have completely backfired, leading to falling betting revenue and more punters than ever using unlicensed operators on the black market.

Of course, the British Horseracing Authority and countless other stakeholders have made it perfectly clear how furious they are about it all. It affects them, too, and these checks have already caused major damage to the British horseracing industry, which (for a very long time) has been heavily reliant on punters’ bets to keep the sport afloat.

How the issue of affordability checks will be fixed remains to be seen. Already, leading industry figures have warned that British racing is set to lose an additional £250million over the next five years because of this, so the government and Gambling Commission will have to act fast in order to reverse the trend. Whether this is through removing affordability checks altogether or increasing the threshold for checks remains to be seen — but some type of action is urgently needed before it’s too late.

Summary

British horseracing is in a funny spot.

Bookmakers estimated that £250million worth of bets was placed during the 2025 Grand National festival, showing that British horseracing is far from dead.

However, something that can’t be ignored is that the recent rise in slow payouts and intrusive affordability checks has led to the relationship between bookies and punters becoming extremely strained.

You only have to scroll social media to see that punters aren’t happy with what’s going on. And with betting turnover significantly down over the past few years and more punters migrating to the black market, there’s only a certain amount of time to fix all of this before the industry really feels the blow.