LIVE Irish racing pictures will be worth €30 million to the industry next year. They were sold for €7 million in 2007. The surge in revenue was confirmed this week when both the Horse Racing Ireland board and the Association of Irish Raceourses signed off on the new media rights deal with Satellite Information Servces [SIS].

The new deal, which runs from 2017 to the end of 2023, should see racecourses receive approximately 10% more than the current €5,000 they receive per race from SIS. Grade 1 tracks will continue to get a slightly bigger slice of the pie but there are indications that any future deals beyond 2023 will be focused on betting turnover rather than racecourse status.

In the meantime racecourse managers and officials from HRI and AIR will be clinking glasses at Cheltenham next week to celebrate what is widely regarded as an excellent deal for Irish racing.

Paddy Walsh, AIR chief executive, said: “It’s always good to get a deal like this over the line. All 26 tracks were represented at our meeting in the Keadeen Hotel and the vote in favour was unanimous. Everyone was happy that this was the best deal in the marketplace.”

Walsh noted that the new deal involves a bit of risk-sharing on behalf of the racecourses. “There is a clause in there with regard to currency fluctuations and the number of betting shops taking the pictures in Britain and Ireland. That wouldn’t have been in previous deals but the length of this agreement is the key factor. It brings certainty of funding that is vital for long-term planning. When racecourses want to borrow money to finance development it is very helpful to be able to produce this contract.”

One manager of a Grade 1 course described the new deal as “phenomenal”. While acknowledging that the bigger venues will benefit most he forecast that racecourses will be much more aware of betting turnover on their races in the coming years than heretofore. “At some stage of the new deal tracks will get a better understanding of turnover on individual races. Staging races which attract more betting will become increasingly important.”

It is thought that the level of betting turnover is determined as much by the position of the fixture in the weekly betting shop schedule as by the number of runners in a race or the prize money on offer. A senior bookmaking source said yesterday: “The quality of the race is still hugely important. Just as good horses bring people through the turnstiles, they also produce more betting.”

The same source also warned that a significant number of British betting shops are likely to be shut once the proposed Ladbrokes-Coral merger is completed. “A lot of their shops are very poor quality and each one that closes means £20,000 less in media rights payments.”

This prospect isn’t worrying one manager of a smaller Irish track who said: “This is a great deal and due credit must go to HRI’s media rights committee. It’s one of our strengths that all the tracks stand together. The smaller meetings are very important to the bookmakers, depending on their timing. Knowing that we have secured funds up to 2023 allows us to draw up a professional business plan.”