James Packer-backed corporate bookmaker BetEasy "plans to stream Victorian horseracing on its website amid a TV rights dispute that has scrubbed the broadcast of key meetings from pay-TV’s Sky Racing," according to Ben Butler of THE AUSTRALIAN. The move comes as Racing Victoria CEO Bernard Saundry "prepares for a series of crisis meetings with the state’s racing clubs this week following fears the stoush is beginning to hit betting turnover." Sky Racing stopped televising Victorian and NSW race meetings on Dec. 17 "after a dispute" between its owner, Tabcorp, and Thoroughvision (TVN). While TVN "continues to show races on pay-TV and the internet, its future is clouded after a board meeting on Christmas Eve where directors resolved to hand broadcast rights back to the racing industries in Victoria and NSW." Racing Victoria and Racing NSW "are at loggerheads over how to sell the rights." Saundry said there had been “some softening” in betting since the Sky Racing blackout but it was "hard to be sure what had caused the downturn" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 12/30). In Brisbane, Rod Nicholson wrote Victoria "plans to telecast its 550 race meetings live on corporate bookmaking websites." Racing Victoria will meet the owners of TVN -- Victoria Racing Club, Melbourne Racing Club, Moonee Valley Racing Club and Country Racing Victoria -- in the next two days "to plan continued TVN coverage of Victorian racing." Victoria clubs will push on alone and Saundry confirmed the involvement of corporate bookmakers “is one of our objectives,” as well as TVN staying on Foxtel (COURIER-MAIL, 12/29).
