The Cheltenham Festival is a crucial feature of the year for all bookmakers and their customers across the UK and Ireland – and as a key part of any betting shop, the main TV gantry is the centre of this.
The festival runs in mid-March from Tuesday to Friday with 7 races each day. The races include championship races over fences and hurdles and are the pinnacle of the National Hunt racing calendar for all jockeys, trainers and owners. Over 50,000 people attend each day at the course, with a large number of those enjoying the corporate hospitality and betting shops experience their busiest days of the year. Everyone has an opinion on the races at Cheltenham and wants to back that up with a bet.
MRG Systems has been supplying digital signage to the betting industry since the last century – see other blog for some background on this.
Specific to Cheltenham though, a feed of the data is taken from the SIS feed. This feed contains all the information about each of the races and all the runners and keeps all this information up to date throughout the day. The feed will include any non-runners before the races and then in the lead up to the race, the latest odds from the betting ring. At the off, the no more bets message will show on screen and finally, when the result comes in, then this will show with the starting prices. SIS remains a crucial data supplier to the industry and no more so during the Festival.
The punters want to know all the latest prices throughout the day though, and these details are supplied by the EPOS companies. The early prices show how the betting market is moving in the hours leading up to the race. They reflect the amount of money backing each runner – both in the months leading up to the race and on the day.
MRG have supplied our Bookmakers Information Display System (BIDS) to the UK and Irish market since the 1990s and we work closely with the betting companies to ensure that their customers see data that is accurate and up to date. The off, for example, is delivered to screen immediately (sometimes before the video from the course!). This delivery of data at speed to displays is a key part of MRG’s offering to any customer, not just in a betting environment. This is a speciality of MRG and has been since its inception, delivering live information to companies working on the UK Stock Exchange.
MRG would like to wish everyone an enjoyable and successful Festival.
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