As the international racing industry seeks new delivery channels, a pair of leading brands in the United Kingdom are teaming up to increase racing coverage via the telephone.
attheraces and ukbetting plc today announced a partnership that will broaden the reach of attheraces' horse commentary service.
Through the deal, attheraces has authorized TEAMtalk Ltd. a ukbetting subsidiary, to partner with Broadsystem, a telephone services provider, to deliver the company's horse racing commentary from its 49 U.K.-based tracks. The deal makes the TEAMtalk/Broadsystem partnership the exclusive premium-rate telephone-based commentary provider. The service was launched today.
Punters who can't get to the track can dial into the service to tune into the same commentaries that are heard at the track. Some of England's best-known track experts--Simon Holt, Mike Cattermole and Graham Goode, to name a few--will provide the commentary.
The service will also provide editorial overviews of race cards, audio production and streaming, and a full results service.
A major selling point, according to attheraces, is the ability to deliver the final results of a race within seconds of the judge's verdict.
The service will initially carry up to six U.K. meetings a day, but company officials hope to incorporate all featured daily meets within the next quarter. SMS and MMS technology will eventually be included in the system as well.
David Annat, content director for ukbetting plc, feels the telephone-based service fits well into attheraces' wide array of delivery systems, which include interactive TV and the Internet.
"We are very pleased with this agreement," he said. "This service is the only official service available and provides genuine trackside commentary. attheraces joins us in believing that the future of telephone-based horse racing commentary has never been in a stronger position."
The partnership comes six months after ukbetting took over control of TEAMtalk as part of £14 million buyout.
Many of the assets from the sale were sold, including Irish Radio Tara, but ukbetting kept TEAMtalk in its portfolio.
For the 15 years prior to the sale, TEAMtalk delivered leading premium-rate sports services to consumers throughout England and the rest of Europe. Broadsystem, meanwhile, has a unique combination of expertise in live and automated phone response, e-mail and mobile messaging.
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