In 1998, a group of racecourses was looking at how they could come together to form the equivalent of a Premier League. The intention was to improve the narrative for horse racing, to make a fundamental change in the way racing was perceived and to take advantage of new media. arm was hired as the project manager. We developed a protocol document which was signed by the twelve biggest race courses in the UK. In our quest to find media partners, we managed to pull together the BBC and Channel 4 as part of a competitive bid process. This was the first time they had ever come together in what was effectively a joint venture with the twelve racecourses. This was a very exciting project working across television and new media. However, the politics of horse racing, involving the other racecourses in the UK, then got in the way. We ended up with the situation where all fifty-nine courses had to re-tender. Consequently, the BBC and Channel 4 decided not to pitch together. Consequently, Channel 4 and Sky and one of the groups of racecourses called Arena came in with a business proposition. The moment they decided to go with the fifty-nine, we backed out of our arrangement with the ‘super 12’ because we foresaw competition issues with the fifty-nine courses. We could see it was going to be difficult to get the right proposition in the market that would be to the benefit of the twelve major race courses. Part of our work with the ‘super 12’ had been to look at the pre-race data. This is the life-blood of betting. We felt that was an extremely valuable part of racing as a part of its media portfolio - something which had not been properly recognised.  At this point, we stepped away as we could not come to a sensible deal.  The underlying model was based on ATTHERACES becoming a bookmaker as well as a media business. In our view, this was unsustainable. We were then retained by the BHB to advise them on this particular area of the sport. Up to that point, racing had been largely funded by a state levy. It was a matter of law. The bookmakers had to pay a certain amount of money to the levy board which was used to fund racing. The government had indicated that it did not intend to continue with the levy and wanted racing and bookmakers to come to a commercial deal. Our advice was that the pre-race data was the ideal mechanism, that it could be protected. It was a valuable source of revenue and no betting could take place without it. Betting might increase if you had pictures as they do in bookmakers’ shops but you could always take bets without pictures. We embarked on a new licensing scheme based around that. This then dovetailed back with the majority of the racecourses deciding to go ahead with the bid from Sky, Channel 4 and Arena. Despite having been told by the BHB that some one would need to talk to them about data, that conversation did not happen until the commercial terms of the deal had been secured. The fifty-nine courses had told the consortium that they could deliver the data. Up to that point, data had been worth about 2% of the combined value of pictures and data. We took the view that it was worth much more. If you look now at how much British horse racing makes from data against pictures now, about 7 times more is made from data! We then got involved in terms of helping negotiate with the BHB when this consortium, which was called ATTHERACES, came to secure the data. In the first instance, we worked through the night to try and negotiate a deal. It was clear we couldn’t arrive at a sensible deal that would protect the licensing programme that we had suggested the BHB follow. So the BHB turned down the offer and refused to grant the data. We then had a very public AGM where the chairman, Peter Savill, had to announce that the deal was not going ahead. Behind the scenes, we continued to negotiate with the consortium. On the Wednesday of Royal Ascot, we met with Peter Savill at the course to have a conference call with ATTHERACES. By 10 o’clock at night, Peter said he wanted to go back to his hotel. We got into our car, with Stephen at the wheel and Peter in the passenger seat. We continued negotiating the deal on the car phone all the way to the hotel where there was no conference phone so we stayed in the car. Peter went to bed at about 1a.m. and we continued to negotiate the deal driving back to London, where we arrived at about six in the morning. Arena had to make an announcement to the Stock Market declaring whether they were going ahead with the deal or not. They were looking for 60 million pounds from the market. At 7.30a.m., we finally closed the deal just in time for their brokers to make the announcement. Having worked all night, we then worked all day to produce a description of that deal, to negotiate the final terms of the license and the way the money would be distributed within the racing industry. We took that document down to Ascot that night for a special board meeting which was being held by the BHB. Peter Savill’s horse was running in the Gold Cup, which is the most prestigious race at Royal Ascot – and it won! We then had the board meeting and got approval for the ATTHERACES deal and the funding plan. The meeting finished at one in the morning and everybody was suitably delighted. We continued to work with the BHB to implement the licensing policy with the bookmakers. BHB then set up British Horseracing Enterprises to focus on these commercial issues in line with the model we suggested. With hindsight, we can now see that our evaluation of the ATTHERACES deal was correct. We advised that the collective racecourses would run into competition issues and would be found to be in breach of Competition Law.  The business model for ATTHERACES did indeed prove to be unworkable and the deal was terminated in 2004. So, it’s true to say that arm can play a significant role in advising sports rights owners about what NOT to do as much as what they should be doing. The data licensing scheme, which was based on a much more realistic model, has survived arm continues to provide consultancy services for that aspect of the business.