Horse Racing: Industry Sps Are Likely From April

Industry starting prices compiled by the major bookmakers could become a daily fact of life for betting shop punters as a result of the struggle to control live coverage of racing in off-course shops, a senior industry figure said yesterday.

"We support the current SP system and want it to continue because the punter trusts it," said David Harding, the chief executive of William Hill. "But if there is no way to take betting shows and SPs from the course, we will respond as we have to, whether that means industry SPs or different prices from every bookmaker."

Harding also warned that a plan by 30 UK tracks to break the current broadcasting monopoly held by SIS by launching their own channel for sale to betting shops would be bad news for punters and for the Levy. "There is no way you are going to get two services as well co-ordinated in the shops as the current coverage," he said. "The punters will suffer, meaning that turnover will go down."

At present, industry SPs are returned on some major foreign races, such as the Arc de Triomphe, where there are no on-course bookies. The SPs on British races have always been compiled at the track, one step removed from the influence of the major off-course firms.

Price information is currently collected at the course by representatives of both SIS and the Press Association. From April, however, five tracks - including Newbury, York and Goodwood - represented by the Amalgamated Racing company (AMRAC) will replace the SIS representative with one of their own employees, with SIS denied access to the relevant information. A further 25 tracks will do the same from next year.

Since SIS will seek to offer betting shows on all races, regardless of whether these will be broadcast on their network, this also raises the prospect that shops subscribing to both services will display two sets of prices on the same event.

"Some markets are natural monopolies," said Harding, whose firm is a shareholder in SIS. "At the moment, it is pretty seamless, but if you have two products with competing commentaries and services being beamed into every betting shop, there's no way it's going to be a better experience for the punter.

"It's no use having SPs without the betting shows too, and if we don't have access to the information, there are processes we can use to collate what we need ourselves."

Alan Morcombe, the chief executive of AMRAC, said yesterday that he did not foresee any threat to the SP system as a result of his company's entry into the market. "The PA will still distribute SPs to licensed users in Britain and throughout the world," Morcombe said. "We will not be denying anything to anybody."