Bookmakers cleared of collusion in TurfTV fight.

Byline: By Jon Lees

A HIGH COURT judge yesterday cleared major bookmakers of running an illegal cartel by boycotting TurfTV when it launched as a rival betting shop racing service to SIS.

Mr Justice Morgan ruled that Coral, Ladbrokes, William Hill and Betfred had not committed an unlawful, concerted practice in refusing to purchase TurfTV.

All the companies, except Betfred, eventually took the service, which Amalgamated Racing (Amrac) set up in a joint-venture on behalf of 31 of Britain's 60 racecourses.

The judge also rejected claims of unlawful collusion over decisions by some bookmakers to withdraw sponsorship from certain races.

The ruling brought an end to a bitterly contested High Court action for which the legal bill is estimated to stretch to pounds 15 million, though the case could yet go to the Court of Appeal. Costs in the case have also yet to be decided.

Having previously cleared Amrac of illegal price-fixing, the judge has now determined that the bookmakers had also done nothing unlawful.

Mr Morgan said: "I hold that the relevant bookmaker companies did not collude in the ways alleged by the defendants.

I hold that the general and specific matters relied upon by the defendants, even when the individual matters are considered in combination, are nowhere near strong enough to justify me in rejecting the sworn evidence to the contrary of the bookmaker witnesses."

He added: "As a result of my findings of fact in relation to the allegations of collusion, the counterclaim for damages and other relief as a result of the alleged collusion must fail."

The judge had ruled in August that the claim of illegal pricefixing made against racecourse owners who set up their own joint-venture to get more money out of televised racing in betting shops must also fail. He then rejected allegations by Bags, William Hill, Ladbrokes and Betfred that Amrac was in breach of European and British competition rules.

As a result, the judge also dismissed at that time part of the counterclaim in which Amrac contended that, if it was guilty of price-fixing, then exclusive licences granted to Bags and its partner, SIS, were also in breach of the rules.

TurfTV, which ended SIS's monopoly when launched in 2007, was disappointed at the outcome but stressed that taking the action had been crucial to its success in the judge's first ruling.

TurfTV executive chairman Alan Morcombe said: "While today's verdict is disappointing, Amrac won the first and most important part of this legal battle in August and, as a result, is able to continue trading exactly as we currently do. Bringing this counterclaim was a crucial part in that victory."

How it happened

In October 2006, Alphameric announced it was setting up its own betting shop channel for live racing and data, and in 2007 agreed a joint-venture with Amrac. That led to their signing deals with 30 Racing UK courses and Ascot.

The on-screen SIS monopoly was broken in May 2007, when five RUK courses and Ascot joined TurfTV. The split was completed on January 1, when the remaining RUK courses came on stream. In September 2007, Bags and four bookmakers issued a claim against Amrac and 30 of the 31 racecourses, alleging the courses had infringed competition law by collectively selling media rights exclusively to TurfTV.

Amrac counterclaimed that the deals Bags and SIS signed with the other 28 tracks were exclusive and infringed competition law.