Monday 22 June 2015 14:22, UK
The British Horseracing Authority has announced details of a new Horseracing Bettors Forum.
The Forum will allow people who bet on racing to make constructive suggestions to the BHA about how the sport can develop and change from a betting perspective.
Up to eight individuals will be considered for the Forum, which is being headed by Simon Rowlands of Timeform.
Meeting on a quarterly basis, the Forum will meet to discuss such topics as the fixture list, race programming and data and information available to punters.
Nick Rust, chief executive of the BHA, said: "There are nine million people who bet on British racing each year. They are an essential part of our sport and as such it is vital that the needs and wishes of those individuals - who are stakeholders in the industry - are properly considered. That is the purpose of this Forum.
"These are important times for the industry as, at the same time as we move closer to signing the Members Agreement which will see the formal tripartite structure between the BHA, Horsemen and Racecourses formalised, the betting public will be given a formal route of communication into the BHA for the first time.
"While the body won't be representative as such, it will act as a valuable consultative group and be a vehicle by which the betting public can tell us what they want from the sport and advise us on how certain developments may affect them. We are seeking to identify a group of people with diverse interests in betting on British racing so that it is capable of considering a wide range of relevant topics.
"One of the three key aims of our Industry Growth Strategy is to reverse the slow decline in betting on British racing, and to achieve 5% growth on 2014 participation levels by 2020. Being in tune with betting consumers is important to our cause.
"In Simon Rowlands we have the ideal chair and we have enjoyed working with him on developing the terms of reference for the Forum. We're looking forward to getting started and we're ready to start recruiting the other Forum members.
"As such, we invite anyone who has strong views, ideas and a passion for British racing and the time to meet once every three months, to make an application and have a chance to be involved in something genuinely new and exciting, for the good of our sport."
