Four major sports betting operators have followed Betfred in signing a multi-year, turnover-based streaming and data deal with Sky and Arena Racing Company’s horse racing digital platform At The Races (ATR) commencing January 2020.
Kindred Group’s Unibet, BoyleSports, Betway and BetVictor have all entered into new agreements in terms of which ATR receive a share of turnover on all bets placed on racing, as opposed to the previous pence-per-stream fixed amount model.
With effect from January of next year, each deal will cover the delivery of streamed pictures and race-day data, which ATR sells as the licensee for Arena’s racecourse rights holders. All content is delivered to partners via ATR’S proprietary streaming platform, Sport Mediastream.
Matthew Imi, Chief Executive Officer at ATR, commented that they are delighted to have concluded these four important agreements and look forward to working closely with their partners to maximize betting turnover on their racing product.
ATR is the joint venture between Sky Sports and Arena Racing Company (ARC), the operators of the largest racing TV Channel in the UK, Sky Sports Racing.
Betfred became the first bookmaker to sign the streaming deal with ATR under the new model last month, which has now become more popular in the industry.
Bookmakers are, however, concerned that margins could be eroded by this model, or possibly lead to a coverage blackout should some refuse to work with ATR under the new terms. It is also felt that the erosion in margins could result in the betting industry dropping promotions such as best odds guarantees, which could lead to a decline in customer spend and lower revenue for the tracks as well as for the operators.
