Arena Racecourse Operator Fears Tough Year Despite ’10 Profits

generic pills Helmet, advice Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.077em; text-rendering: auto; clear: left; padding: 0px;”>Arena Leisure, the UK Horseracing course operator, has posted a rise in underlying profits, but says it expects challenges ahead as funding from bookies is cut.

Amongst other leisure interests, Arena operates seven courses in the UK – Windsor, Doncaster, Southwell, Wolverhampton, Folkestone, Worcester and Lingfield Park.

Last year, the firm saw a 10.4 per cent rise in adjusted pre-tax profits to US$8.74m.

However, chairman David Thorpe said the yield from the levy on bookmakers was estimated to fall this year, stating: “The yield from the levy is estimated to fall to £64.8m ($104.9m) in 2010-11 as a result of the movement of internet and telephone betting offshore, the impact of overseas betting operators and betting exchanges.

“The levy is fundamental to the support of horseracing in the UK and it is our belief that all parties should seek to maintain it in a modernised and restructured form.”

During 2010, Arena staged 352 horse racing fixtures and said its average attendance had increased by 4.2 per cent to 1,800 over the period.