The number of trainers and jockeys signing up to links with betting firms has trebled in three years. A British Horseracing Authority register lists the names of 19 trainers and 24 jockeys as having commercial arrangements with bookmakers. The authority said on Thursday that in 2016 the register had six trainers and eight jockeys.
Some of the links on the list are with long-established bookies, such as Frankie Dettori’s arrangement with Ladbrokes, Paul Nicholls’s with Betfair or Colin Tizzard’s stable with Coral, but most involve newer firms striving to build market share in the lucrative British and Irish betting markets. Flat rider Josephine Gordon writes a blog for Unibet, for instance, while the Gloucestershire trainer Fergal O’Brien is on the register alongside 32Red, the online casino that brokered a deal to bring Wayne Rooney to Derby County.
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