The formation of a new company owned by a group of tracks – the Greyhound Media Group (GMG) – is being met on internet forums and Facebook pages with a lot of ???s inter-spaced with a few !!!!s. So what does it all mean?
Readers of previous Editors Chairs may be a little more clued in and apologies to them for any repetition of facts. But events need to be explained in context as the repercussions are guaranteed to affect the entire future of greyhound racing in Britain and Ireland.
In the last couple of years a series of events have taken place which have led to the current position. Satellite Information Services’ (SIS) loss of rights to broadcast horse racing roughly equates to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Suddenly a company without a product, they decided to compete with their client, the Bookmaker Afternoon Greyhound Services (BAGS). We don’t need BAGS, we can run the whole shooting match ourselves!
Their immediate allies were the big bookmakers, notably Corals and Ladbrokes (SIS part owners) who have had on-going issues with BAGS for years. Primarily: why aren’t ALL our meetings on BAGS!!! After all, we pay for them through turnover in our shops.
Stories abound of indignant senior executives being asked to leave the room when BAGS fixtures were dished out. Not only did BAGS not allocate fixtures to all bookmaker meetings, some were allocated to tracks with whom the bookies had major issues, notably Sittingbourne and also the supposed ‘propping up’ of Wimbledon.
A series of further events led to the current situation, and similar to Europe prior to 1914, they were based on strategies and alliances. Corals (the tracks division) broke ranks by signing directly with SIS who in the meantime had recruited Field Marshal Gordon Bissett to run their campaign.
Then earlier this year, Ladbrokes announced that they would not renew their BAGS contract to provide racing coverage. At corporate level, a second attempt was made to merge Corals and Ladbrokes and it was approved by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) despite protests from GBGB.
That’s pretty much up to date. The formation of GMG is the overdue arrival on the battlefield of a division of tanks attempting to thwart SIS.
The tracks have various fears. Firstly, the new Corals/Hills betting shops will sooner or later ditch BAGS and go solely with SIS. However SIS have a problem. The four tracks, even with complete coverage of all meetings can only manage roughly 20 meetings between them per week. So to be competitive in the market, SIS would still need some BAGS content.
BUT – what if, theoretically of course, SIS were able to manufacture the dismantlement of BAGS – which is a betting shop owned organisation . . . where would that leave Britain’s greyhound industry, which is massively reliant on BAGS income?
If BAGS doesn’t exist in a year’s time, those 2019 contracts aren’t worth squat. The non-bookmaker owned tracks may get a few scraps off the SIS table, but they could basically be wiped out.
But despite all the scheming and manoeuvring, I don’t think either side knows exactly how this will play out.
The balance of power lies in the hands of Ladbrokes/Corals commercial competition: William Hill, Betfred, Paddy Power/Betfair, Bet365 and dozens of independents. They will be presumably be considering two priorities, quality of service and price. They certainly won’t want to pay for SIS and a BAGS product.
This is where it gets interesting because SIS has reputedly not come cheap over the years.
Can they produce a cheaper service than ‘not for profit’ BAGS? Surely the only way would be to pay the tracks less? How much are SIS paying the Corals/Ladbrokes tracks for their content?
SIS may fancy their chances of dismantling BAGS, but what is to stop GMG negotiating their own deal with Willliam Hill, Betfred etc and asking Attheraces to broadcast on their behalf?
There are other considerations too. Will SIS, now owners of the Coral/Ladbrokes product, allow it to be shown on RPGTV, or will they want to keep it exclusively for their betting shop service? I’d bet short odds on the latter.
What will happen when BAGS announce their 2017 fixtures? One theory suggests that BAGS were indulgent to Corals/Ladbrokes when dishing out this year’s fixtures in the hope of keeping them on-side.
Now negotiating directly with SIS, will BAGS play hardball? Can they afford to, given the Corals/Ladbrokes product is highly rated by the betting industry?
The BAGS fixtures announcement will be made in early November, possibly the eleventh hour of the eleventh day. But don’t expect peace to break out any time soon.
