Client: BHA
In June 2025, British horseracing faced an existential threat to the sport’s financial sustainability. The Government was proposing to harmonise remote gambling duties, increasing taxation on all forms of gambling under a standard rate in the Autumn Budget. For horseracing, which depends on betting as a financial lifeline, the economic impact would have been devastating, risking irreversible decline of the sport. With less than six months before the Budget, we needed to secure a carve-out for British racing. Teneo worked with the British Horseracing Authority to drive widespread awareness for its campaign to reverse the Government’s proposal. Central to our strategy was to make a U-turn feel inevitable for policymakers by demonstrating that the potential gain for HM Treasury was not worth the political cost. To do this, we had to shift the issue from a niche sports story into a mainstream cultural and political conversation. Teneo developed an integrated, multi-channel campaign to create a “surround sound” for direct public affairs engagement, reaching policymakers through multiple touchpoints. We focused on reaching wider audiences, specifically the persuadable public, winning hearts and minds by reminding the British public why racing matters and the benefits it brings for people and communities across the country. In a highly contested Budget environment, with many stakeholders campaigning against proposed policies, our high-impact, fully integrated, strategic campaign was better executed, more powerful and more engaging - delivering over 870 pieces of coverage and ultimately, a policy U-turn, with a rare industry carve-out granted for horseracing.
