BRITAIN’s biggest bookmaker, Ladbrokes, is close to signing a five-year £60m deal to be supplied with live horseracing from Turf TV.

Ladbrokes has now joined Coral in signing up to the service, and William Hill is expected to follow shortly, although no serious negotiations have yet been held. Ladbrokes is paying Turf TV between £5,500 and £6,000 per shop, costing it about £12m a year.

Ladbrokes’ decision to sign up is a spectacular success for Turf TV, which has quickly built a business from scratch. Turf TV is a partnership between 31 of the UK’s 59 racecourses and Alphameric, a technology company. The partnership is called Amalgamated Racing and is chaired by Alan Morcombe, who is also chief executive of Alphameric. It includes top courses such as Ascot, Aintree and Cheltenham.

Smaller bookmakers, such as Paddy Power, Totesport, Boyle-sports and Stan James, have already signed up.

The big three bookmakers had resisted doing a deal with Turf TV because they jointly own SIS, a rival horseracing broadcaster.

But when some of the country’s biggest racecourses said they wanted to produce their own service, the bookies had little choice but to accept.

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