SIS announces relaunch in betting shop battle

SIS has announced a relaunch of its service to betting shops, saying it will be a 'must-have' package for bookmakers' customers.

Due to changes in the media rights landscape, SIS will have a much diminished British horseracing service for the first three months of 2018 – consisting of Chelmsford City, Leicester, Stratford and Taunton, along with Irish racing – due to the emergence of new channel The Racing Partnership (TRP), in which Arena Racing Company is the driving force.

There had been indications some independent bookmakers would not take SIS as they considered TRP's horseracing and greyhound service to be sufficient for their needs.

From January 1, SIS said it would provide additional horseracing content from Latin America and the US to help fill the schedule, along with more virtual racing.

It also plans to provide a full greyhound service, which has been the subject of a rights battle with TRP and the fixture list for which was also announced on Wednesday.

From April 1 SIS will be able to show action from all Racecourse Media Group's tracks that include Jockey Club Racecourses, Ascot, Goodwood, Newbury and York.

SIS product director Paul Witten said: "Effectively, we are making sure we have a must-have package for bookmakers' customers."

From April, SIS's content will be shown across two channels, which Witten said would allow it to present it in a better way and with minimal clashes.

However, he said SIS would discount for the first quarter due to the diminished British horseracing content which would cost them a "significant financial hit".

Asked about the prospect of bookmakers not taking their service, Witten said: "I am not being complacent about this and that is part of the reason for discounting the first quarter.

"When it gets to April 1 it is a bold decision by a bookmaker to not take the service that contains RMG horseracing and the full SIS greyhound service and Irish horseracing.

"I'm hopeful the volume of content we have and the way we will be presenting it means people will see it as better value than it was before."

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