International Group Ignores Good Neighbor Policy
The 37th annual conference of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities in Paris last week, to the dismay of some, concluded with little consideration to Asian racing's "Good Neighbor Policy" (GNP).
Racing officials from Asia and Australia were hopeful the group would take up the issue, which entails an agreement among jurisdictions to not accept cross-border bets.
Those that favor a GNP policy see it as the most effective way to address illegal gambling and competition from off-shore gaming operators.
The policy began as a bilateral agreement between the Hong Kong Jockey Club and the Japan Racing Association to protect their domestic markets, was discussed. Six nations from the Asian Racing Federation, including the Australian Racing Board, signed on last month.
The conference featured a presentation focusing on the policy, but the IFHA didn't formally take the issue into consideration.
As the conference drew to a close, discussion arose about betting exchanges, which have experienced huge growth in Europe, particularly in Great Britain.
Peter Savill, chairman of the British Horseracing Board, said the British government views betting exchanges favorably, but that he was concerned about integrity and finance. He said he planned to express those concerns to the government. His conclusion is that betting exchanges can not be policed.
UK Ferrier Faces Inquiry
A probe into the betting patterns on Hillside Girl at Carlisle in June resulted in the U.K. Jockey Club calling an inquiry in which the self-employed farrier of the horse, Steve O'Sullivan, will have to appear before regulators.
The Disciplinary Panel hearing, set for Oct. 23, follows O'Sullivan's refusal to hand over betting accounts and telephone records.
The Jockey Club's security department believes these details are relevant to its investigation, one that has focused on races in addition to that of Hillside Girl.
O'Sullivan, whose Midas touch as a layer on exchanges was exposed by the Racing Post, shoes the majority of horses with Alan Berry, Hillside Girl's trainer, and also works for other trainers, but his involvement in racing could now be under threat.
attheraces Criticized for Programming Decisions
Officials with the British attheraces consortium are coming under fire for their business decisions.
After paying £300 million for British racing's media rights the station could only carry one race meeting live last week in Britain, despite the fact there were two others the same day.
attheraces has the rights to broadcast from 49 of Britain's courses, including all the major venues, but the remaining 10 tracks are members of the rival GG-Media consortium. Among those 10 tracks are Leicester and Sedgefield, where the other two races were run. (The race that aired was held at Ayr, to which attheraces holds the broadcast rights.)
Almost all of the GG-Media tracks are small National Hunt venues, and throughout the long, hot summer, their absence from TV screens has not been a problem. As winter sets in, however, the gaps in the schedule become much more obvious.
Until early this year, action from all 10 was available to domestic viewers on the Racing Channel, but since its American owners pulled the plug in January, only punters at betting shops (as well as at the tracks themselves) have seen them.
attheraces has negotiated for the rights to the 10 remaining tracks, but there seems little chance that a deal will be struck before the bulk of this year's National Hunt season concludes.
"We haven't made much progress," Ian Hogg, the chief operating officer of attheraces said yesterday. "These things always come down to money, and the last proposal we had was just too expensive."
TVG Subsidiary Turns to Federal Court for Help
ODS Technologies LP, which provides a simulcast horseracing network at Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park, asked a U.S. federal court last week to prevent the tracks' owners from ending their contract with the company on Nov. 1.
ODS Technologies, which does business as the Los Angeles-based TVG Network, is locked in a legal battle with Magna Entertainment Corp., which bought a majority stake in Pimlico and Laurel last year.
The Maryland Jockey Club and Laurel Racing Association sued ODS in Baltimore's U.S. District Court in July, claiming ODS had not met an agreement to generate a certain amount of betting revenues through its network. ODS filed a countersuit in August, claiming that Magna wants to boot TVG from the tracks to make way for its own simulcast network.
Magna execs cited Maryland's year-round racing schedule (which provides a steady dose of simulcast content) as a major reason for purchasing a stake in the two tracks..
The Jockey Club asked the court in an Oct. 1 filing to dismiss several counts of ODS's lawsuit or put the suit on hold until the Jockey Club's original lawsuit is resolved.
ODS asked the court in an Oct. 3 filing for a preliminary injunction against the Jockey Club and Laurel Racing to keep them from ending or breaching their simulcast agreement with ODS or supplying the tracks' simulcasts to an ODS competitor, including Magna’s simulcast network, HorseRacing TV.
The Jockey Club has said in court papers that it will end its agreement with ODS Nov. 1 unless ODS proves it has achieved a three-month average of $230 million in gross simulcast bets, as its contract requires. ODS says that contract requirement was eliminated long ago.
Keeneland Wins Prestigious Simulcast Award
The Keeneland Association was named the winner of the seventh annual Simulcast Award for the best television production from 21 entries from Thoroughbred, Standardbred and Quarter Horse racetracks.
The award was announced during the second day of the three-day International Simulcast Conference in San Francisco.
Keeneland's broadcasts are directed by G. D. Hieronymus and feature Mike Battaglia as the on-air paddock show host. The track's detailed graphics package was cited by judges as was the presentation of its unique atmosphere along with betting information for simulcast patrons.
Account Wagering Technology Key to Racing's Future
While simulcast wagering has grown to account for 86 percent of North America's thoroughbred betting handle, account wagering stands to be the next great leap in the business.
Attendees at the 11th Annual International Simulcast Conference in San Francisco learned in several early sessions that simulcasting generates an ever-increasing bulk of racing's business, up from last year's estimate of 83 percent.
Todd Bowker, general manager of the account wagering firm America TAB, which is based at Beulah Park, urged simulcast coordinators to realize the importance of their positions and seek appropriate resources from racetrack managers to support their operations.
Simulcast managers must be able to effectively participate in their organizations' sales, marketing, accounting, communications, player relations, purchasing, legal compliance and account wagering, he said during his annual "Simulcasting 101" presentation.
Channel 4 Introduces Interactive Betting Element
Channel 4 has added interactive TV betting to its horseracing coverage, integrating the functionality behind its attheraces joint venture with Sky and Arena Leisure with scheduled programming.
It's the first time C4 has used its involvement with attheraces to enhance one of its own broadcast properties, and the company hasn't ruled out extending the wagering application to other formats.
Tammy Learn, iTV development manager at C4 said that although the move didn't mark "an opening of the floodgates" in terms of the station's iTV betting activities, having attheraces behind C4 racing was an exciting development.
Recent enhancements to attheraces, carried out by its digital agency TenTenDigital, mean that viewers will be able to compare and place fixed-odds bets with Ladbrokes, Littlewoods and SkyBet. The service was previously restricted to pools betting by Tote.
Legal Battle over Russian Broadcasting Rights
Last week marked the beginning of what analysts predict will be a costly court battle between boxer-turned-businessman George Walker and the British Racecourse Association. At stake are the rights to beam coverage of British horseracing meetings and betting information into Russia and Eastern Europe.
As the two-week trial opened in the Commercial Court, lawyers told Justice Colman the conflict stemmed from two rival agreements.
The first, struck in 1999 between the association and Walker's company, Premier Telesports, gave Premier exclusive rights to live racing coverage. It was intended to the basis for developing a tote-based betting system to be distributed to subscribers in the former Soviet Union.
Walker's lawyers argued that the plan had been for the racing coverage to be transmitted to Premier's studios. Foreign language commentary would be added and the resulting package would be sent by satellite to subscribers in Russia and Eastern Europe. The subscribers would belong to a "tote pool." Premier would take a 30 percent cut of the tote money to cover its production costs.
But in 2001, a £307 million deal was signed between 49 of the 59 racecourses and the attheraces consortium.
Lawyers described the second deal as a "much larger media rights agreement," allowing for worldwide broadcasts.
Walker contends there is a "direct conflict" between the two agreements, and is suing the association and attheraces for breach of contract.