Paddy Power's new deal on British racing

Bookmaker Paddy Power has signed a deal with a controversial new racing broadcast service backed by London-quoted electronic data company Alphameric.

The British company announced yesterday that the Irish bookie was the first major chain to sign a long-term deal with its joint venture partner, Amalgamated Racing (Amrac), for television rights from a number of British racecourses.

The new deal initially means that Paddy Power will retain the right to show racing from six tracks, including Newbury, which stages today's main flat races. It would have lost these rights had it not signed up with Amrac, which is offering the service through an entity called TurfTV.

The service went live yesterday and bookmakers who did not sign up were unable to broadcast action from Newbury.

Big British chains such as Ladbrokes and William Hill are blacking TurfTV as it would involve them in having to pay for an extra service along with that from existing supplier Satellite Information Systems (SIS).

Paddy Power's position is that it is not going to offer odds on races which its customers cannot watch in its shops.

From next year, TurfTV will involve 31 British tracks, including major venues such as Cheltenham, Aintree, Epsom and Newmarket.

Neither Amrac nor Paddy Power revealed the cost of the deal. Amrac is seeking about €8,800 a year per shop for the service, which works out at around €1.8 million annually for Paddy Power's 200-plus shops in Ireland and England.

But the Irish bookmaker is understood to be paying less than this. There is also an estimated saving of over €2,000 per shop resulting from the reduction in the service from SIS, which charges about €18,000 a year per outlet.

But the bookmaker will be obliged to carry both networks if it is to provide a full service to customers.

The 31 racetracks involved were all due to renew deals with SIS, which has had the rights for the last 20 years.

However, they opted for the joint venture with Alphameric in a bid to maximise earnings from the sale of the TV pictures to bookies.

The pair established the company, with the backing of €12.38 million raised by Alphameric.