Games Guy | September 3, 2011
Extra delays in broadcasting “live” racing on the At The Races channel are proving a lifeline to some tracks as pro backers take advantage of gambling in real time against folk viewing on UK horseracing at home.
Viewers watching At The Races have always experienced a lag in the transmission of racing, and often that delay is rather longer than on other channels. For instance, live racing on the BBC truly is live, and transmissions on Channel 4 are less than a second slower than real-time. Customers to Racing UK are subject to a delay of around 2 seconds, Betfair Radio is somewhere around seven seconds behind the event, while At The Races now trails in the back of the field with a delay of 8 seconds.
Last month, engineering work carried out by Sky, a major partner in ATR, increased the time it requires for footage to get to the screen by around two seconds. A Sky Sports spokesman explained the process by which the signal is broadcast. He revealed, “Our footage are channelled thousands of miles and there are seven stages from the racetrack to the sofa. The delay varies depending on many technical factors, but basically all channels on the Sky platform are subject to some degree of delay. The upside is we will be able to broadcast sport from all around the globe in 3-D and high-definition.”
Racing UK also transmits from offshore, but is not reliant on Sky to push a signal thru. It also makes extensive use of fibre-optic wires, which broadcast a signal more quickly.
ATR themselves guesstimate the delay to be between five and seven seconds, but recognize this is too long for any person needing to bet in running to do so whilst watching their service. Pro bettor Graham Wheldon has already questioned ATR about the change and is less than pleased with their response. He announced, “When the first increase in picture delay was brought in by ATR, we were told ATR spectators put picture quality ahead of speed. However , the picture quality stayed the same. And the picture quality is still same after this latest 2.7 seconds increase in picture delays. No reason has been offered and ATR have not answered emails from one or two people I know asking what has happened.”
Asked if this was having any impact on exchange betting Tony Calvin, head of media at Betfair said, “Betfair has no control over The speed of footage offered by broadcasters but we make our clients totally familiar with the likely delays, both before and during bet placement. We have not spotted any decline in volumes or activity as regards in running betting.”
What has evolved though is the behaviour of some of the big professional punters. The delay gives them further time to put bets with backers whose awareness of the in race action is several seconds behind their own. Courses such as Southwell and Wolverhampton have found that they are able to compensate for the decline in company hospitality by hiring boxes to in-running gamblers. With charges of around 500GBP for a box and anywhere between 20 to 30 professional punters at every event this new line of business is bringing in close on 100,000GBP for each track over the course of the year.
Dave Roberts, managing director at both Southwell and Wolverhampton said, “With the depression we lost a lot of hospitality business and the in running punters filled the gap. They are definitely a urgent part of our business because they come to every meeting, which suggests we have regular hospitality buyers. There may come a time when this customer no longer exists. I do not really know what the subsequent turn will be whatever it is I will try to take advantage of it.”
Once more, it's the ordinary man in the street punter who misses out.
Matt Bisogno owns and writes for geegeez.co.uk, the UK’s foremost independent provider of horse racing reports, horse racing tips, betting system reviews and comparing latest odds.
Category: sports games |
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Tags: Backers, Bbc, betting on horse racing, Bettor, Channel 4, High Definition, Home Viewers, Horse Racing, horse racing betting, Horseracing, Lifeline, Racetrack, Seven Seconds, Seven Stages, Sky Sports, Sofa, Spectators, Spokesman, Technical Factors, Time Customers, Time Lag, Transmissions, Uk Horseracing, Wheldon