HUGE ENGINEERING PROJECT COMPLETED BOOKMAKERS WIN THE RACE TO MODERNISE

27 May 2003 - As Governments across Europe choose dates for switching from old-fashioned analogue TV signals to digital, bookmakers are in the lead thanks to SIS. The company announced today the end of a sixteen-month long engineering programme to 'digitise' 10,000 bookmakers' shops in the United Kingdom and Eire at a cost of £15 million - with minimum disruption.

The programme was scheduled to take eighteen months and had to be completed before the analogue transponder that sends pictures through the network's rapidly aging electronics was due to be switched off. A delayed start put the project under severe pressure to make up time, if punters were not to be left without the SIS service in their local betting shop. A concerted effort by SIS its suppliers and the betting industry meant this was avoided - just!

Although it took until the last day available, all betting shops signed up to the new system were converted and now receive a digital signal through the sophisticated electronics from SIS.

Many of the bookmakers are based in small streets and some shop locations made it difficult to work - with SIS' emphasis on minimal disruption of punters. Standard operations involved a range of cranes, cherry-pickers, scaffolding and hoists. Non-standard operations included the hazard of seagull attack as the installers were dive bombed by the birds. In some areas, planning restrictions stop bookmakers from using satellite dishes. In these cases, SIS persuaded BT to design and lay local cable runs to relay the service from another location.

Digitisation allows expansion and modernisation of the services offered to punters. The extra data capacity allows SIS to deliver many more sports and much more betting data separately and simultaneously. 1/2
The benefits to punters and bookmakers will be seen in a new generation of display systems and a leap forward in the capacity of the automated bet acceptance systems coming to market. In addition, the new system is more reliable, resilient and has far better performance in bad weather.

"It's been tough and I wouldn't want to experience that close a finish again, but a combination of tight management and a co-operative customer base helped us deliver within time and against the odds," said David Holdgate, chief executive of SIS."

- ends -