Last minute negotiations have proven successful for Britain's Go Racing consortium, which announced earlier today that a deal has been reached with the British Horseracing Board regarding pre-race data licensing rights.
The group, comprised of Arena Leisure plc, Channel 4 and British Sky Broadcasting, thought it had nailed down all the media rights for most of England's racing industry until last week when the BHB began having second thoughts about the deal.
Go Racing originally agreed to pay about $600 million for a 10-year contract, but racing owners and trainers began complaining that the racing industry's share of proceeds for the non-terrestrial rights, valued at about $30 million, were inadequate. In addition, BHB Chairman Peter Savill, a powerful figure in the racing industry, also objected to signing away the group's data rights for 10-years.
As the deal began floundering last week, Go Racing CEO Christopher Stoddard told Ananova news, "I am driven to question whether the BHB is interested in building the sport through enterprise or whether they are merely intent on bolstering their own position."
After nearly a week of intense negotiation that frequently lasted overnight, the two groups finally reached a consensus today. While the terms of the new contract, which still needs the approval of the Racecourse Association and the Racehorse Owners Association, were not released, Arena Leisure and the BHB issued a joint statement that said the two groups had agreed to "key commercial terms for the data licenses."
"Accordingly, the advisers to the BHB are able to recommend the terms and conditions to be set out in the data licenses to enable the board to consider the grant of a data license by the BHB to Go Racing," Arena Leisure added.
The two racing groups are expected to immediately consider the terms of the licensing agreement, during which they will negotiate some terms as well. Now that Savill has thrown his support behind the deal, it's likely the racing groups will follow suit.