Australian greyhound racing now beamed live to USA
Greyhound Racing Victoria (GRV) has teamed up with Sky Racing and Tabcorp to broadcast greyhound racing to the world, GRV chair Peita Duncan announced earlier today.
Ms Duncan said that from the second week in June, the sport would be beamed into North America with a potential audience of millions of people.
“This initiative with Sky Racing allows us to showcase our great athletes, trainers, racing and sport to the world,” Ms Duncan said.
“It also opens up a massive new wagering audience which will help us work through COVID-19, increase returns to our participants and position us for an exciting new future. This is a first for Victorian and Australian greyhound racing and gives us an unprecedented opportunity to share and grow the sport with a massive new audience.”
Ms Duncan said Australian greyhound racing would initially be broadcast throughout the United States of America via skyracingworld.com and online wagering companies.
“However, once COVID-19 restrictions in the United States have been lifted, there will be opportunities for us to have our sport shown live in casinos and numerous other clubs and venues,” Ms Duncan said.
Ms Duncan said the USA project would be completed in two phases. Initially, one Australian greyhound meeting a day with separate US tote pools would be beamed live to the United States, with the intention being to then progress to co-mingling following regulatory approvals.
“The first meeting beamed into the US will be the Victorian Shepparton meeting on June 15 and we will be pushing hard for more Victorian meetings as we go forward. I would like to thank Sky Racing, TAB and our clubs for partnering with us to bring these projects to fruition,” she said.
Adam Rytenskild, TAB's Managing Director of Wagering and Media, said the initiative was exciting and Sky was looking forward to partnering with GRV and other Australian greyhound racing jurisdictions.
“This will allow us to showcase greyhound racing to the massive North American market and develop new wagering markets with benefits flowing back to the sport and participants,” he said.
Neither Tabcorp nor GRV were forthcoming on the exact details of the revenue deal with vision providers and offshore bookmakers. It remains to be seen how much the new vision deals will return to participants in reality, but the opportunity to grow the sport's revenue base by embracing wagering providers outside Australia is long overdue.
Over 100 greyhounds killed on Australian tracks in 2020 and over 3,000 injured. Mass killing, live baiting, doping, greyhounds forced to live in small, squalid kennels for 24 hours a day. We’re the biggest gamblers in the world losing $24 billion in 2017/2018 and with all the associated family breakdown, mental health and domestic violence issues. Congratulations on offering this brutal, archaic industry to a wider audience.