Sport England Asks Sportsbooks to Invest in England’s Athletic Future

Sport England is a British government agency that builds the foundations of sporting success by creating a world-leading community sport system of clubs, coaches, facilities and volunteers. This is by no means an easy task and very recently, Sport England has turned to sportsbooks for help in keeping their endeavors afloat.

The government has proposed that a fund be made in which bookmakers would hand over millions of pounds to insure the future and proliferation of sports programs in the UK. These investments would be made to Sport England for reinvestment in grassroots sport as part of a new voluntary code.

Sports minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, has asked Richard Lewis, the chairman of Sport England, to oversee the plan and operation of this task. The incentives for bookmakers to make such donations are, according to Sutcliffe, “an opportunity for all parties to show goodwill” and the idea that they will be ensuring their successful future in the future of local sports.

Sutcliffe has urged bookmakers to “move relatively quickly to an agreement” and make a “serious and significant” contribution. Let it be noted, that this implies a sum between £5 and £10 million. BetFair led discussions of such a fund last year, but they were unsuccessful.

Online sportsbooks in UK claim that the only way that this will work is if sports bodies argued statutory right to a percentage of revenues is removed. Operation run this way in France, where 1.8% of profits are paid to each licensed operator.

Internet gambling in the United Kingdom is very popular and the idea of such a voluntary fund does no harm. If players see that online sportsbooks are willing to invest in improving the games, sympathy may be aroused leading to more faithful players. British gambling laws do not threaten the industry in any way so if the parties involved can settle on the issue, punters may see British sports flourishing on a whole new level.