ARC appoints PA as its official data partner
23 March 2016: Arena Racing Company (“ARC”) has appointed PA (“Press Association”) to deliver horseracing data to high street and online bookmakers.
As ARC’s official data partner, PA – the UK’s leading provider of multi-platform content – will collect and distribute race day data (“RDD”) and validate Starting Prices (“SP”) from all of ARC’s 16 racecourses. PA, on behalf of ARC, will deliver this data to Licenced Betting Offices (“LBOs”) and online betting sites.
The new partnership will come into effect from June 2016 when PA will begin to provide data from horserace meetings in South Africa. From January 2017, PA will cover courses at Doncaster, Lingfield Park, Royal Windsor, Southwell, Wolverhampton and Worcester. The rest of ARC’s racecourses will follow from January 2018.
The deal follows significant investment by PA to transform the way it collects and delivers data to its racing customers. PA’s automated collection of live data will result in faster delivery to ARC and its customers, while also reducing the possibility of errors. Data from South African and UK racecourses will be distributed from PA’s long-established data centre at Howden.
Director of Media Technology and Production at ARC, Mark Kingston said: “PA have great experience and a long established role in collecting data on course. PA have been at the forefront of developments that have been taking place on UK horserace courses to automate the collection of data. ARC and its customers will be beneficiaries of this development. Just as importantly, ARC will be in a position to ensure that the accuracy and integrity of this business critical data for the off course betting industry is maintained”.
“This agreement will allow ARC to contract with, and provide data, direct to LBO’s and the rest of the betting industry. This data will be made available to bookmakers along with pictures from ARC’s courses, as well as from South African race meetings”
Jim Donnelley, Director of Racing and Betting at PA said: “In addition to its heritage in collecting and validating starting prices at UK race courses, PA is internationally renowned for speed and accuracy. As such, we are perfectly placed to preserve the integrity of the business-critical data that ARC delivers to the off-course betting industry.”
The news follows an announcement by ARC in December 2015, that it had agreed a media rights deal with Phumelela Gaming and Leisure. This means that ARC can offer 440 meetings from South Africa to the betting industry. This will complement over 500 UK fixtures from January 2018, including jumps, turf flat and all-weather races. Racing commences for betting shop and online customers from mid-morning (when South African races commences in UK betting shops) followed by afternoon UK racing through to evening floodlit fixtures.