SIS: The Broadcast Engine Behind Every BAGS Race
If you have ever watched a Monmore greyhound race on a bookmaker’s website, in a betting shop, or through an app on your phone, you were watching an SIS feed. Sports Information Services is the company that films, produces, and distributes the overwhelming majority of greyhound racing content in the United Kingdom. It is not a household name, but it is the infrastructure that makes remote greyhound betting possible. Without SIS, the BAGS model collapses, the betting shops lose their afternoon content, and Monmore’s results stop reaching the audience that funds the track’s existence.
SIS delivers over 38,000 greyhound races per year through a dedicated channel separate from its horse racing output. That volume represents the combined output of tracks across the UK, scheduled in staggered time slots so that a bookmaker’s screen always has a race about to start. The service runs from early morning through to the last evening meeting, creating a continuous stream of live betting content that keeps the tills ringing in shops and the odds refreshing on screens. For context, 38,000 races per year works out to roughly 105 per day — a relentless production schedule that requires tight coordination across every participating venue.
From Track Camera to Your Screen: The SIS Pipeline
The broadcast pipeline starts at the track. SIS installs and operates camera systems at each venue it covers, typically multi-camera setups that capture the traps, the first bend, the back straight, and the finish. The footage is mixed in real time by an on-site production team and transmitted via satellite and fibre links to the SIS distribution hub. From there, it is routed to betting shop screens, online streaming platforms, and mobile apps through the bookmakers’ own technology stacks.
The latency — the delay between something happening on track and you seeing it on screen — is minimal for in-shop viewing, typically a second or two. Online streams can carry a slightly longer delay, sometimes three to five seconds, which matters if you are betting in-play or trying to watch the race develop in real time alongside a live odds feed. The delay is not usually significant enough to affect the betting experience for most punters, but it is worth knowing about if you are comparing what you see on screen with the result that appears in your bet tracker moments later. The delay also means that results can appear on data feeds fractionally before the stream shows the finish — a quirk of the system that experienced punters learn to anticipate.
Beyond the live video, SIS also provides data feeds: result times, trap draws, starting prices, and sectional splits where available. These data feeds power the results pages on bookmaker websites and the form databases that serious punters use for analysis. The data pipeline is as commercially important as the video pipeline, because it is the data — not just the footage — that drives the betting product. Without accurate, instant data, the bookmakers cannot settle bets, update odds for the next race, or compile the form pages that punters consult before placing their money. The data is the invisible product within the visible one.
Which UK Tracks SIS Covers and How Monmore Fits In
SIS covers the majority of GBGB-licensed tracks for BAGS broadcasting, though the specific commercial arrangements vary by venue. Some tracks have exclusive deals with SIS. Others share distribution through different arrangements. Monmore’s relationship with SIS dates from a deal struck in 2018 that covers the track’s four weekly BAGS meetings and provides a framework for evening coverage through associated channels.
Monmore’s position within the SIS schedule is that of a reliable mid-week and morning-to-afternoon content provider. The track fills time slots that complement rather than compete with other venues in the SIS calendar, ensuring steady coverage across the broadcast day. For punters who follow Monmore specifically, the SIS deal guarantees that every BAGS race at the track is available to watch live and that the results are transmitted into the data ecosystem within minutes of the finish. Evening meetings on Thursdays and Saturdays are also covered, though the distribution channels and contractual arrangements may differ from the daytime BAGS feed.
The SIS coverage also extends to trap statistics. SIS Racing publishes monthly summaries of trap win rates, forecast and tricast returns, and leading trainers by strike rate for 15 UK tracks, including Monmore. These statistical summaries are a secondary product of the broadcast infrastructure — the same data that powers the live feeds is aggregated and published as analytical tools for punters who want to study patterns rather than just watch races.
Watching Monmore Live: Online Streams and Delays
The most common way to watch Monmore races live is through a funded betting account with a bookmaker that carries the SIS feed. Most major operators — Ladbrokes, Coral, William Hill, Betfred, Paddy Power, Betfair — offer live streaming of greyhound racing to customers with an active account and, in some cases, a minimum balance or a placed bet on the relevant race. The quality of the stream varies by platform and device, but the standard has improved considerably in recent years, with multi-camera angles and replay functionality becoming common.
For punters who want to watch without betting, the options are limited. SIS content is commercially licensed, which means free-to-air access is not available. The track itself offers the most direct viewing experience — attend a meeting at Monmore and you see the racing live, without delay or intermediary. But for the majority who follow Monmore remotely, the SIS feed through a bookmaker account is the access route, and the quality of that access is good enough to make trackside attendance feel optional rather than essential. The streams include replays of recent races, which means you can review a result you missed without waiting for it to appear as a written summary on a form database.
The shift towards online consumption has reshaped how Monmore results are experienced. A decade ago, most greyhound bettors placed their bets in a shop and watched the race on a wall-mounted screen. Today, an increasing proportion watch on phones and laptops, place bets through apps, and receive results as push notifications. The SIS infrastructure underpins all of it — the same feed, the same data, distributed through different endpoints to suit different consumption habits. For Monmore, SIS is not just a broadcaster. It is the commercial artery that connects the track to its audience, and every result you read began as an SIS transmission from a camera in Wolverhampton.