A few weeks ago I received an email enquiring about a Swindon result the previous afternoon’s BAGS meeting. I checked the result sheet and sent a note back to say that the last race was void.
Within five minutes, I was sent a second mail thanking me. The second mail had a website address embedded with a .za suffix. Intrigued, I went online and discovered that it was betting company based in South Africa.
The same day, in preparation for a SKY meeting, I wanted to check on distances between the hurdles at Sheffield. The only footage I found on Youtube was accompanied by (what sound like) a Russian commentary.
The fact that racing is broadcast abroad is no surprise. When I was in Cyprus with Nick Savva, we would often watch his dogs on BAGS in his local betting shop. I know lots of people who love a punt on the dogs when on holiday in Spain. But Russia and South Africa?
I wondered how many countries are taking our pictures. I asked a promoter who replied: “We haven’t got a clue. Once upon a time we used to simply ask where to sign the BAGS contract. Now we are starting to take a closer look.”
To understand the big picture though, you need to consider what is going on behind the scenes and the battle between the companies who control racing, those who control betting, and the organisations who provide the pictures.
Trust me, this is the simplified version, missing out on dozens of twists and turns, but hopefully accurate in the broader strokes.
For many years, horse racing, like the dogs, was pretty much given whatever the bookies chose to hand over for the rights to broadcast their racing. When the law changed to allow live pictures into betting shops in 1986, Satellite Information Services (SIS) was set-up, by the bookies, to broadcast the pictures.
Over time, the horserace racecourses felt that – individually – they were being screwed. So 37 of them set up a company called Racecourse Media Group (RMG) and said to the bookies, ‘We’ll collectively dictate terms from now on.’
There was a High Court battle with the bookies – who were represented by Tom Kelly – and the judgement went against the bookies.
RMG duly kicked the bookmaker-owned SIS into touch and reached an agreement with newly formed Turf TV to broadcast the pictures.
After a stand-off with the big bookies trying to starve out the racecourses, William Hill eventually broke ranks. Faced with missing out, Coral and Ladbrokes reluctantly followed suit.
In the meantime, Arena Leisure and Northern Racing merged to form the Arena Racing Company (ARC) with a combined 15 racecourses who then joined up with seven independent racecourses, including Towcester, to form The Racing Partnership (TRP).
Although there aren’t as many of them as RMG, TRP include most of the all-weather courses and supply around 40% of all UK horse racing fixtures.
So what could possibly go wrong? The two horse racing groups, RMG and ARC both had had their own media providers – Turf TV and Attheraces. Greyhound racing, via BAGS, was broadcast by SIS.
The problem was, SIS and Turf TV were making huge profits from the horse and greyhound racing industries.
Since SIS is 24% owned by Ladbrokes, 19.5%, by William Hill and around 13% by Betfred (Tote), they weren’t too concerned about the size of the bill to BAGS.
However, the independent bookmakers who dominate the board of BAGS – a ‘not for profit’ organisation – felt their members were being screwed with excessive broadcast charges by SIS. They invited tenders to replace SIS, whose contract ended last year, with a cheaper provider.
(BAGS are still operating as a result of a last minute agreement with BAGS, the terms of which remain secret.)
In the meantime, RMG also felt that they were being screwed by Turf TV and sought new tenders.
Last October then, who emerged as RMG’s new broadcasters? None other than SIS – but with their wings severely clipped in terms of the charges they could demand.
Of course, if SIS were able to manufacture the disintegration of BAGS, they could re-appoint themselves as the greyhound broadcaster too!
They already hold the rights to broadcast racing from the four Coral/Ladbroke tracks but would be well short of adequate product to satisfy the UK betting shops.
Fearing being picked off one by one, and similar to the formation of RMG, a dozen of the UK’s biggest tracks set up the Greyhound Media Group (GMG).
SIS bounced back by announcing plans to buy the two William Hill tracks. With six tracks to draw on, they could then surely ‘make do’ with non-GMG tracks, as filler. Or could they even persuade a GMG member to jump ship?
One way or another, they would have the clout to dictate the greyhound product going into the UK betting shops.
But then – to everyone’s amazement – William Hill – a 19.5% shareholders in SIS remember, opted to sell their tracks to ARC for a reputed £10m.
ARC also announced a deal with GMG meaning that they could now offer the superior product to the shops.
So – what happens next?
There are a myriad of possibilities. Will Corals-Ladbrokes with somewhere around 3,500 betting shops only take the greyhound service from SIS? Will they be joined by Betfred with around 1,300 shops? That is a big wedge of the roughly 9,000 shops in total.
We could see a similar stand-off as to the one which followed horse racing’s High Court victory?
ARC are losing money and need the Coral-Ladbroke shops to balance the books. But although the independent bookies seemingly detest SIS on a historical basis, nobody wants to pay for two greyhound services alongside two horse services.
SIS have their own issues because although they have a five year deal with RMG signed and in the vaults, that doesn’t kick in until next May.
Could the Corals-Ladbrokes shops operate from January with no horse racing and a dog service from only their own four tracks?
Make no mistake, given previous twists and turns, nobody is sitting comfortably on this. As one GMG director said recently “SIS are probably wounded at the moment, and that makes them dangerous.”
If SIS were to still land their coup, BAGS would be doomed, as would a number of BAGS contracted tracks. And what would happen to the SKY coverage? Would SIS take it on?
No SKY meetings would mean decimation of the open race calendar, almost certainly leading to meltdown of greyhound ownership and the industry in general.
It all sounds very gloomy, at least in the short term.
But what if the tracks can ride out the BAGS/SIS storm?
For all sorts of reasons, there are even more reason to be optimistic. Sad as the losses of Hall Green and Wimbledon might be, they can hardly be considered shocks. They sat on expensive pieces of real estate and both have been under threat for 20 years.
But this is no longer primarily a spectator sport. Tracks don’t need to be sitting on prime £2m-per-acre sites surrounded by chimney pots. The future is the internet and greyhound racing is uniquely positioned to exploit it.
The loss of Hall Green and Wimbledon actually makes the other tracks stronger. Who says so? All those organisations who currently fighting for greyhound content.
I spotted an article recently which showed that Ladbrokes on-line turnover was up 22% while shop turnover was down 7%.
Internet funded betting has seen RPGTV expand to seven nights a week and will be the saviour or small tracks like Harlow, Henlow and Doncaster.
The appointment of the highly respected Brent Dolan by GMG and the expertise of ARC will only accelerate the process.
In five years time our track promoter will not be asking where his pictures are being sent, he will be naming the countries who are betting into his tote.
