The Derby at Epsom, Britain’s most historic and prestigious Classic, will be sponsored by a gambling company for the first time after Jockey Club Racecourses (JCR) agreed a three-year deal with Betfred, which operates 1,400 betting shops in addition to an online betting and gaming business. The contract also includes the Oaks, the feature event on the opening afternoon of the two-day Derby Festival, which begins on 2 June.

JCR had been looking for a sponsor for the Epsom Classics since Cazoo, a used-car sales website, said last August it was ending its association with the Derby and Oaks after two years.

In the past, JCR has seemed keen to secure non-gambling sponsors for the Derby and Grand National, its showpiece Saturday events, to reflect their high public profile, but it appears to have conceded defeat in its latest search for a blue chip name to replace Cazoo.

This year’s Derby will be the 244th running of a race that has spawned many similar contests around the world since it was first staged in 1780. With a prize fund of £1.5m, it will be the UK’s most valuable race.

“As a bookmaker with a long and established history in horse racing and numerous other sports, I’ve worked with Fred [Done, the firm’s founder] and Betfred for more than 20 years and know how deeply committed they are to British racing,” Amy Starkey, JCR’s managing director, said on Tuesday.

“Betting has been integral to the Derby since its inception in 1780, when even the name of the race was decided on a coin toss. With 1,400 shops across the UK, I’m excited that Betfred will be able to help us promote these prestigious races on high streets up and down the country.”

Done launched his firm with a single betting shop in Salford in 1967 and his retail estate, based mainly in the north and Midlands, did not reach 100 shops until 1997. It rose to 200 shops within another three years and continued a rapid expansion to more than 1,000 outlets after the 2005 Gambling Act legalised £100-a-spin gaming machines – known as FOBTs – in high-street premises.

Like many other familiar names in bookmaking, Betfred has attracted criticism from some online punters for restricting stakes on racing and sports bets to as little as a penny while also allowing – or actively encouraging – restricted punters to gamble on fixed-margin gaming products instead. It has also been fined several times by the Gambling Commission for breaches of social responsibility and money-laundering rules, including a £2.87m penalty in September 2022 when a customer “was allowed to lose £70,000 over a 10-hour period just a day after opening an account”.

Meanwhile, Animal Rising – a rebrand of the protest group Animal Rebellion – has confirmed its determination to disrupt the Grand National on Saturday with an on-track protest. Last week, an undercover investigation by the Mail on Sunday appeared to reveal a plot by “up to 100” protesters to break into the course and glue themselves to the track before the big race on 15 April.

“Protest is a fairly common thing in a democracy and there’s nothing new about it,” Animal Rising’s spokesman Ben Newman told GB News on Tuesday. “We’ll be using our bodies and that’s all there is to it.”

A statement by Merseyside police after the publication of the Mail on Sunday report said plans are in place to prevent disruption to the race.