Bookies promised savings in new racing media rights deal
Bookmakers in the UK are set to benefit from a reduction in costs for racing media rights after Racecourse Media Group (RMG) and Satellite Information Services (SIS) announced a five-year picture and data rights deal.
The deal between RMG, which looks after the media rights of 34 of Britain’s tracks, and SIS will run from 2018 to 2023 and will see RMG maintain responsibility for collecting images, video and data content from all of its fixtures.
SIS will then take delivery of the images, video and data from RMG’s production facility in Ealing, west London, and make it available to major bookmakers for broadcast in their retail betting shops and online betting sites.
Both parties said the deal represented an improved and more efficient relationship between the RMG and bookmakers, providing a “significant uplift” in payments to racecourses and savings to bookmakers over current arrangements.
The savings will come from a reduction in market inefficiencies or “leakage” between what bookmakers pay for media rights and what the race course actually receives, caused by SIS and rival TurfTV running services to bookies in parallel.
“Today’s agreement with SIS is a significant step forward for our courses and shows what can be achieved when racing and bookmakers work together,” Richard FitzGerald, RMG chief exec, said.
“This more efficient rights structure will deliver a significant uplift in payments to racecourses, while bookmakers will be paying reduced costs for guaranteed quality content for the long-term,” he added.
SIS chief exec Gary Smith said he was “very pleased” to have reached an agreement with RMG which represented an “efficient, sustainable arrangement” for bookmakers and racetracks.
The new deal comes as SIS continues to diversify its product range with the supplier having recently launched a trading service and also moved into exclusive real-time data supply through a deal with Spanish football governing body Liga de Futbol Profesional.