no problem.
Horse racing has been the bred and butter for bookies for ages – almost 90% of turnover was horse based – and it’s only in the last 20-30 years that sports betting has really been allowed.
Sure, the UK Pools have been around for a while – but the fear of potential match fixing meant that singles bets on non-televsied games was not normal as late as the 1980’s.
Gradually the restrictions were relaxed – as offshore bookeis offered single odds anyway and UK bookeis needed to compete.
Now it turned full circle and horse racing is under the microscope. With the advent of Betting Exchanges – allowing people to place LAY bets on horses (effectively betting that a horse will NOT win) – it’s the horse racing section that is under the microscope whenever a short odds favourite fails badly.
I think that sports betting is about 30%-35% of total turnover now in the UK – horses still own the larger share of the pot.