SIS CALLS FOR PICTURES NEGOTIATIONS NOW - IN INTERESTS OF RACING AND BETTING

13 February 2001 - The Racecourse Association (RCA) was challenged to come to the negotiating table with of Satellite Information Services (SIS) today.

Speaking at the BOLA AGM David Holdgate, Chief Executive of SIS, called upon the RCA to enter serious talks immediately in order to ensure that both Racing and Betting grew and attracted new customers. Holdgate said. "Despite being an integral part of racing, SIS has received not a single formal response to any of the offers we have made to the RCA over the past year."

SIS's Chief Executive also stated that the company intended to be around whatever UK racing decided and pointed out that SIS had much of the rest of the Betting Shop Service product, such as Irish, South African and greyhound racing. He went on to announce a major programme of re-equipping the Betting Shop estate for digital transmission involving an investment of more than £30million over the next 2 years.

In a warning speech aimed at the both the Racing and Betting industries, Holdgate stated that there were a great many alternatives for both industries' customers to turn to, and insisted that the SIS had the "experience, expertise and financial commitment" to deliver. He hit out against the possibility that racing should decide which pictures should be shown and warned that apathy amongst bookmakers might produce just such a result.

"There are other companies around with experience of sports broadcasting ; even racing broadcasting. There are other businesses who are expert in information gathering and transmission. But only SIS can claim to be front rank in both." Holdgate stated.

Although Holdgate admitted that "nothing gives a betting shop the drama, the sheer tingle factor of live horse racing", he told the bookmakers that the non-UK racing services had proved very popular with the punters and that they formed the bedrock of SIS' continuing services to the betting industry for the future. He promised. "Whatever happens, [to UK racing] those services - providing over 30% of your turnover and a significantly higher proportion of your profits - will still be coming to you after 2002"

In a brief round-up of the company's plans for the future, the Chief Executive promised a regular series of consultative meetings with representatives of the betting industry chaired by him personally, and a massive modernization programme - " We will replace and upgrade production and transmission facilities at SIS to improve the range and quality of the service we supply. We will move transmission to a different, digital, satellite transponder. We will replace the dish and receiver in each shop. It is our aim to increase the choice of services available, to both the betting industry as a whole and to individual shops"

Holdgate went on to emphasize "Racing must get a move on if they do not wish to see their new found riches cancelled out by a loss of the vastly greater money paid by you, the traditional betting industry, for their product. It seems curious to me that so much attention should be paid to the negotiation of one deal for £40million per year, at the expense of talks about a deal which currently pays around double that figure."

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