The immediate future of betting on horses in Britain remains unclear, as bookmakers and race course operators have failed to reach an agreement on the use of pictures from tracks in betting shops.
A 15-year contract allowing bookmakers to carry live pictures from all 59 U.K. tracks expired Wednesday. Representatives from the Racecourse Association and the Confederation of Bookmaker Associations evaded a blackout by reaching a temporary agreement Wednesday morning to keep the status quo for now.
A spokesperson for the RCA said the two sides are still in negotiation on a long-term basis and whether or not betting shops would continue to pipe in pictures from British tracks would be determined on a day-to-day basis.
The negotiations collapsed after the two sides failed to agree on how much to charge betting shops for the rights to broadcast live coverage from 49 racecourses across Britain, including Sandown Park and Cheltenham.
The spokesperson did say the two sides are closer to reaching an agreement now then they were when the week started and expressed that settling the issue is in the best interest of both bookmakers and track owners.
"Some of the smaller tracks are going to start loosing revenue streams if this goes on much further," the spokesperson said. "The bookmakers are going to see a cut in their bottom line, too, if they keep have to import races from outside of England, which the punters have little interest in compared to the action that is taking place here."
Had the temporary agreement not been reached, the only horse racing available on screen to betting shops, other than that from the BBC and Channel 4, starting Wednesday, would have come from the 10 courses that signed a separate deal broadcasting deal with GG-Media.
The 10 tracks will receive a total of £4.96 million.
Hopes that the remaining 49 courses would broker a deal with the Confederation of Bookmaker Associations rested on Tuesday's Racecourse Association annual meeting in London. Neither side would comment on what they were demanding from, or offering to, the other, but The Racing Post reported in its Wednesday issue that the sides were far apart.
According to the publication, the bookmakers offered to pay £3,500 per race for a stated number of events and fixtures, but that fee would not be imposed for terrestrially televised races. The offer was "totally and unanimously rejected," according to RCA chairman Keith Brown.
The RCA annual meeting mandated its official negotiators, chaired by Richard Johnston of Racecourse Holdings Trust, to negotiate a "more equitable deal." It has been reported that in a lunchtime phone call on Tuesday, racing countered with £5,000 per race, but that too was given short thrift.
The race courses and bookmakers have met formally twice in the last 10 days.
Some smaller courses are believed to have voiced during Tuesday's meeting serious concerns about the failure to reach an agreement and about the consequences of a lengthy standoff.
The position taken by Arena Leisure and Northern Racing, which together control a significant proportion of non-televised fixtures, is regarded as pivotal to the immediate future of any lasting pictures deal.
The bookmakers' strength of purpose also seems unswerving. One source told The Racing Post, "We are unanimous--from the big firms to the small independents."
Across the Channel
While bookmakers within Great Britain continue to do battle over pictures, their counterparts in Ireland have climbed on board with the British Horseracing Board and the recent data deal it signed with British bookmakers.
Ladbrokes, Stanley Racing and Paddy Power have all agreed in principle to sign the British Horseracing Board’s five-year data license entitling them to use BHB's data for their betting offices and telephone operations in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The terms of the license mirror the terms already agreed for licenses issued in Great Britain.
The three firms account for 300 of the Ireland's 749 betting offices. An agreement has also been reached with the Irish Independent Betting Offices Association, which represents a further 350 outlets.
Assuming that all British and Irish bookmakers sign the BHB's license, British Racing can expect to receive more than £600 million over the next five years.