Racing UK, the UK's premier horseracing channel, and the Racing
Post, the leading racing and sports betting newspaper owned by Trinity Mirror
plc, have joined forces to sign an innovative broadband agreement with five
major bookmakers, it is announced today.
The pioneering joint venture will see Racing UK and the Racing
Post receive a share of betting revenues from a co-branded broadband site to be
launched later this year, in addition to guaranteed revenues from the five
partner bookmakers - Bet365, Blue Square, Ladbrokes, The Tote and VCbet, the
fixed odds betting arm of Victor Chandler - for the rights to integrate Racing
UK and the Racing Post's media assets into their own internet sites.
The venture has been developed in conjunction with Premium TV to
give users the best possible viewing and betting experience with fastest
streaming speeds. Bet365, Blue Square, Ladbrokes and VCbet have already begun a
soft-trial of the service with their customers and all five bookmakers are
expected to have fully integrated the service into their sites by next
week.
Racing UK and the Racing Post, British racing's two most
prominent and respected media brands, invited bookmakers in April to tender for
five broadband licences offering a combination of live internet coverage of
Racing UK's entire media portfolio and comprehensive racing analysis and form
supplied by the Racing Post. The bidding process was highly competitive and
generated interest from more than 20 betting companies.
The successful bidders have agreed to deals giving them rights
to integrate Racing UK's live footage into their existing websites. In addition,
they will also benefit from prominent branding and display of their prices on
Racing UK and Racing Post's new dedicated broadband site, which is expected to
go live by mid October 2005. The joint-venture site will include the current
Racing Post desktop betting shop allowing customers to bet on-line.
The joint venture between Racing UK and the Racing Post follows
a successful trial partnership in April for a dedicated Grand National race
website. The site, which included analysis and form from the Racing Post
alongside live and archive video footage of the Grand National from Racing UK,
recorded an impressive 2.4 million page impressions from over 157,000 unique
users. The joint venture is also intending to launch a 3G mobile service in the
next few months. This follows Racing UK's success in broadcasting the Vodafone
Derby meeting live on 3G earlier this year.
Racing UK is wholly owned by 31 of the UK's top racecourses and
is a ground-breaking venture by a sports rights holder to own and market its
media rights. Leading racetracks involved in the venture include Aintree,
Cheltenham, Epsom, Goodwood, Newmarket, and York. The channel, which was
launched in May 2004 following the collapse of At The Races, has proved a great
success, attracting over 34,000 subscribers.
Simon Bazalgette, Executive Chairman of Racing UK said:
"We believe the service is the highest quality and most exciting
broadband project in the sports sector.
"The partnership with the Racing Post is a powerful combination
of video and data which will allow horseracing punters to study form, view live
races and bet via the internet. It demonstrates how horseracing continues to be
at the forefront of new technological developments in managing media
rights.
"We are obviously delighted with the response from bookmakers
and the calibre of partners we have secured. The success of the bidding process
is due to the combined 'must have' factors of the Racing Post's unrivalled form
database, website functionality and brand, and Racing UK's quality coverage from
the UK's leading racecourses.
"Racing UK was established to manage a range of media rights
across all platforms, not just the television channel. The broadband venture
represents another major step towards maximising the value of racing's media
rights for the benefit of the sport as a whole."
The Racing Post and its website www.racingpost.co.uk - market
leaders in the provision of horseracing and sports betting information - are
part of Trinity Mirror's portfolio of high-profile sports brands.
Jeremy Reed, Managing Director of Trinity Mirror's Sports
division, said:
"Our aim is to build on and complement our leading positions in
print and online racing media by creating a key destination for punters on the
net.
"Online betting turnover on horse racing in the UK tops £500
million per annum and is rising fast thanks to the increasing number of
broadband users, which is now thought to be over 7 million.
"This unique partnership will allow us to increase our share of
this exciting and rapidly growing market. We also have plans to expand into the
mobile services sector and to cover overseas horse racing."
