It follows a decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), ruling that the bodies can only charge for this information where they have made an “investment” in their databases, reports the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.
As a soccer fixture list, for example, only contained information about who are playing where and when, they could not charge for its use.
The case began four years ago, following a European Commission directive seeking to protect the copyright of databases.
Soccer and horse racing launched court actions against companies they claimed were using their information without paying for it.
The sports were confident of success, especially after the ECJ’s own Advocate General supported their case.
It leaves the British Horse Racing Board in an awkward position, after it brought an action against bookmakers William Hill for listing runners and riders on their internet betting site.
British racing gets £100million a year from the betting industry through the statutory levy. It was hoping to remove this and generate considerably more revenue by charging for use of its database.
But there is now speculation that the £100million figure could fall significantly.
