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 factor for bringing its backing to an end.


The bookmaker, which is part of the Entain group, has sponsored the Coral Cup since its inception in 1993 however following the announcement of impending increases to remote gaming duty, which is levied on games, and remote wagering duty on sports, leaving out British racing, it has actually reassessed its marketing spend.


Simon Clare, Entain's UK customer PR director, discussed the decision to end the Coral Cup sponsorship was made with "some sadness", while underlining the requirement for the firm to derive "more worth" from events in future.


He said: "Coral has been the longest-running sponsor at the Cheltenham Festival considering that 1974, but the large size of the government's recent tax boost on betting operators suggests we are needing to take very challenging choices as we want to alleviate some of the huge effect, none harder 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 big sponsorships we have with them under our Ladbrokes and Coral brand names.


"Horse racing remains really essential to Entain, and Coral and Ladbrokes have a few of the biggest and most long-lasting sponsorships in the calendar, including the Ladbrokes King George, which had one of its best ever renewals a couple of weeks ago, and the Coral-Eclipse where last year we commemorated 50 years of sponsorship. The Cheltenham Festival is also a huge four days for our company and our customers, and we will be promoting and commemorating it as much as ever in our stores and online and throughout 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 betting operators indicates we need to drive much more worth out of the events we sponsor, and evaluation with even greater scrutiny where we invest our marketing invest, which has actually resulted in the end of the Coral Cup sponsorship."