Coral Ending Long-running Sponsorship Of Cheltenham Festival Handicap

Coral has actually ended its sponsorship at the Cheltenham Festival, citing betting tax rises as the reason for bringing its support to an end.


The bookie, which belongs to the Entain group, has sponsored the Coral Cup considering that its beginning in 1993 but following the statement of to remote gaming duty, which is levied on online casino-style games, and remote betting duty on sports, leaving out British racing, it has reassessed its marketing spend.


Simon Clare, Entain's UK customer PR director, explained the choice to end the Coral Cup sponsorship was made with "some sadness", while highlighting the requirement for the company to obtain "more value" from events in future.


He said: "Coral has been the longest-running sponsor at the Cheltenham Festival given that 1974, however the sheer size of the government's current tax boost on wagering operators indicates we are needing to take really hard decisions as we seek to reduce some of the huge effect, none more difficult or regrettable then bringing our sponsorship at Cheltenham to an end.


"The Jockey Club are strong, long-standing partners of Entain, and although we are stepping away from this sponsorship, we will continue to work passionately and collaboratively with their racecourse groups on the huge sponsorships we have with them under our Ladbrokes and Coral brand names.


"Horse racing stays very essential to Entain, and Coral and Ladbrokes have a few of the greatest and most enduring sponsorships in the calendar, consisting of the Ladbrokes King George, which had one of its best ever renewals a few weeks back, and the Coral-Eclipse where last year we commemorated 50 years of sponsorship. The Cheltenham Festival is also an enormous 4 days for our company and our consumers, and we will be promoting and celebrating it as much as ever in our stores and online and across our marketing channels.


Langer Dan (far right) winning the 2024 Coral Cup (David Davies/Jockey Club)


"However, the substantial modification in the taxation landscape for wagering operators suggests we need to drive much more worth out of the occasions we sponsor, and review with even higher scrutiny where we invest our marketing invest, which has led to the end of the Coral Cup sponsorship."