Turkey gets night racing from Kempton, help from "P"

Turkey gets to watch night racing, why not from the big "T" with help from "P"?


Turkey signs with Racing UK for Kempton floodlit package


THE steady growth of live UK racing beamed overseas is continuing with the addition of Turkey to the regular portfolio and a third day's coverage in Australia.

Starting tonight, punters betting in tote-only Turkey are being offered eight weekly Kempton floodlit cards until the middle of December, under an agreement reached by Racing UK's international partner, the South Africa-based race-track and betting operator Phumelela.

The deal was brokered by John Stuart, Phumelela's director of international marketing, who was in Paris for a round table forum organised by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities and European Pari-Mutuels Association, and the IFHA conference.

He said: “This is something of a trial run, and it will be interesting to see how it develops, because Kempton will be a stand-alone product in Turkey, with no other racing around it.

“But Turkish punters bet the equivalent of about £750 million through their tote last year, and their bets on Kempton will go into the UK Tote pools, so this could be an important market for UK racing.”

In a similar move, At The Races is preparing a schedule of winter meetings for possible transmission into Turkey, according to marketing director James Singer.

Singer, who gave a presentation to the IFHA conference on the importance of race data for international operators, said: “Turkey has already taken Irish racing and some from England, such as Ascot on QEII day, but nothing regular yet. We are hoping to work out a schedule that will involve at least one meeting a week.”

Both Stuart and Singer stressed that having 48-hour declarations for Flat racing in the UK was vital in attracting interest from the Turkish racing authority, but even more crucial in the expansion of their joint activity in Australia.

From taking UK racing on Thursdays from October 2006, Australia's Sky Channel and its associated betting operating company Tabcorp has added Saturdays and, from last week, Fridays, generally covering two meetings each day.

Tabcorp's international wagering manager Paul Cross, who told the round table forum that his company's ambition was to create a 24/7 horseracing channel, said: “We simply couldn't take UK racing without 48-hour declarations.

“Being ten hours ahead of the UK, 24-hour declarations would not give us enough time to get the fields into the newspapers and the form into our betting outlets in time for punters to study.

“There's definitely customer demand in Australia for UK racing, and especially for good quality racing.”

Growing demand for UK racing is also being shown in the United States, where Phumelela and RUK operate through a number of outlets, including the online betting operator Youbet.com, while ATR has an exclusive deal with TVG.

Vic Gallo, Youbet business development vice president, who told the EPMA round table that the more information that punters were given the more they would bet, estimated that on some occasions his online customers would contribute up to 20 per cent of a UK Tote pool through the Phumelela link.

He said: “The time difference isn't so critical for us, but our players still prefer early declarations, because they generally start their handicapping the day before racing.