Satellite Information Services (SIS), a provider of end-to-end products and services to the betting and broadcast industries, is hopeful of continuing to work with a new joint venture production unit between UK racecourse owner and operator Arena Racing Company (ARC) and Racecourse Media Group (RMG), which manages the media rights for 34 UK racecourses.
The venture will provide television content and data for organisations that wish to broadcast coverage of British racing, with SIS’s current production contract with ARC set to expire at the end of 2016.
SIS chief executive Gary Smith said that a deal could not be reached after several months of “far-reaching discussions with ARC” and bookmakers.
“Our hope was that we could create a more efficient relationship between bookmakers and ARC, facilitated by SIS, but sadly we have not yet been able to agree terms acceptable to both,” he said. “Nevertheless, we wish ARC and RMG luck with their new initiative and of course SIS remains interested in the media and data that the new joint venture will create and willing to assist ARC in any way it can.”
Smith added: “As we understand it, the joint venture is primarily geared to collection and production of their media data. Neither ARC nor RMG have sold their media rights to any bookmakers, and in many ways this would be a complicated and difficult route to take. It may well make good business sense for the new enterprise to sell the media and data it produces to SIS for inclusion in the services we provide to bookmakers… We remain interested in the retail media and data rights from ARC, from RMG or from the many independent racecourses in the UK, as long as they are available at a price our customers will accept."