UK bookmakers could lose their ability to sign sponsorships with horseracing operators unless they’re fully paid up on their contributions to the sport.

On Tuesday, the Arena Racing Company and Jockey Club Racecourses issued a joint statement saying they support a plan by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) to bar any new commercial relationships between racing and any betting operators who either (a) don’t pay into the current racing Levy scheme or (b) lack a commercial deal under which they make a designated contribution to racing based on their online race betting revenue from UK customers.

BHA CEO Nick Rust welcomed the stance taken by the two racing groups, which control half the UK’s racetracks – including Cheltenham, Aintree, Epsom and Newmarket – and nearly 60% of all racing fixtures. Other courses, including York, Goodwood, Ascot and Newbury, have yet to fully sign on to the program but issued their own statement saying they supported a “collaborative and future-proofed approach to racing’s relationship with the betting industry.”

The annual protracted haggling between racing and betting operators over the Levy scheme has become as familiar and unwelcome as discovering all the dog turds on your lawn each spring after the snow melts. In March, the UK government confirmed plans to introduce a Horserace Betting Right to replace the Levy system, but few details have emerged since, possibly because someone alerted them that such a right could violate European Union trade rules.