A claim of illegal price-fixing made against racecourse owners who set up their own joint venture to get more money out of televised racing in betting shops was thrown out by the High Court today.

A judge dismissed a multimillion-pound lawsuit in which the former exclusive provider of the live TV, owned by bookmakers, accused Amalgamated Racing (Amrac) of running an illegal cartel.

Mr Justice Morgan rejected allegations by live coverage provider Bookmakers Afternoon Greyhound Services (Bags), William Hill, Ladbrokes and Betfred that Amrac was in breach of European and British competition rules.

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

A further counterclaim against Bags has yet to be decided.

In a 29-day hearing spread over eight weeks, the bookmakers -

who objected to being forced to pay what they regarded as exorbitant rates for Amrac's "must have" coverage in their shops - made accusations of "collective, exclusive and closed price-fixing".

Amrac, which has exclusive deals with 31 of the UK's 60 racecourses to bring live TV pictures to betting shops via Turf TV, argued that they were morally and legally justified in wanting to secure a fair price from bookies whose previous monopoly was short-changing them.

The lawsuit, involving six QCs, three junior counsel and teams of solicitors, is reckoned to have run up a legal bill of around £15 million so far - and may yet go to the Court of Appeal and beyond.

The judge heard that, for the past 20 years, the monopoly for showing live racing in betting shops had been held by SIS.

That all changed when Turf TV started in January 2007. Now all the bookmakers apart from Betfred had been forced to agree to take the new service because they could not do without it.

In a long and detailed judgment, Mr Justice Morgan concluded that the objects of the agreements between Amrac and the racecourses did not have the potential of restricting competition.

They had the reverse potential - and very real potential at that - to increase competition. At the least, they would not to have an adverse effect.

The resulting increase in prices paid to the racecourses "was not the result of anti-competitive behaviour by sellers fixing prices but was the result of the pro-competitive entry of a second purchaser into a market formerly occupied by a monopoly", he said.

Alan Morcombe, chief executive of Alphameric, expressed his pleasure at the ruling and underlined the company's wish to move forward.

He said: "All of us at Alphameric are delighted with this judgment.

"Importantly, it allows Amrac to continue to develop and improve its business, while we also believe that Alphameric's Leisure division, which had been adversely impacted by this litigation, can return to profitable growth and, over time, regain lost momentum.

"Alphameric is now moving on and remains committed to working with our bookmaker clients.

"We trust that Alphameric, Turf TV and the major bookmakers who brought this case can now develop closer and better relations, which we believe will lead to a more profitable future for everybody concerned."

(reopens) The Jockey Club, through its subsidiary Jockey Club Racecourses, is the leading racecourse shareholder in Turf TV.

Julian Richmond-Watson, chairman and senior steward of the Jockey Club, said: "As the largest racecourse shareholder in Turf TV, we obviously welcome the judge's conclusions that Turf TV did not in any way contravene competition law in establishing itself in the market place as a competitor to SIS.

"The emergence of Turf TV has undoubtedly changed the landscape and impacted upon the relationship between the betting and racing industries.

"Although we are still awaiting the judge's deliberations on the second part of the case, it is our hope that today's finding represents an opportunity to draw a line underneath recent disputes and for the Jockey Club and the other key components in the racing industry to develop a real commercial partnership with individual bookmaking firms and betting companies.

"The Jockey Club is looking to move on; it is ready and willing to work with those in the betting industry who wish to promote and expand the appeal of horseracing to all their customers."

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