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The Irish Greyhound Board has ruled out any further track closures as a means to achieve recovery in the industry.

IGB chairman, Phil Meaney, said the Board believed the national footprint of the industry was one of its great strengths. “ Increased participation at all levels in the industry is essential if we are to meet the considerable challenges the industry faces and tracks around the country are an essential resource in doing this. Tracks outside the main population areas play a very important role in the industry which is not always understood and are the primary basis through  which the dog pool can  be maintained and ownership increased.”

Mr. Meaney added: “ The decision to close and to sell Harolds Cross Stadium, although difficult for everyone involved,  is  designed for a specific purpose which is to reduce the level of legacy debt which the industry is trying to manage. The sale of the stadium is essential  if the industry is to stabilise its finances and enter a more positive phase .”



SIS and the Irish Greyhound Board add Tralee fixture

Monday 27th February, 2017 – SIS, a trusted partner to the retail and online betting markets, and the Irish Greyhound Board have announced an additional fixture to be broadcast during Saturday mornings from Tralee greyhound stadium.

The new fixture will be available to UK and Irish betting shops, and online operators as part of SIS’s exclusive streaming portfolio.

Commencing on March 4th 2017, the meeting will consist of eight races with the first starting at 9.11am. Later races will dovetail the SIS existing retail shop greyhound coverage from Crayford and Romford.

SIS already own exclusive rights to broadcast three fixtures in Ireland, with current offerings from Youghal on Monday evenings, Mullingar on Sunday afternoons and a second fixture at Tralee on Tuesday evenings.

Paul Witten, Commercial Director at SIS said: “We have added a second fixture from Tralee to our retail and online programs, following customer demand for greater coverage at suitable times and we see the Saturday morning slot as one of those times.

“SIS endeavour to offer premium content and streaming provision across all bookmaker channels and the new deal will complement this, thanks to the help of the IGB.

Joe Lewins at IGB said: “this gives us a further opportunity to showcase our racing product to the SIS audience and to build on the success of the three meetings currently being broadcast throughout Ireland and the UK”.

The extra meeting will add to SIS’ exclusive coverage across the UK and Ireland including horse racing and greyhounds, all facilitated by their market leading low latency streaming platform, SIS Stream.

SIS’ greyhound offering currently includes 30,000 races a year, making it the most comprehensive in the market.




Major Upgrading of Irish Greyhound Board’s Laboratory Infrastructure

The Irish Greyhound Board’s programme to enhance integrity in the sport has been significantly strengthened through a major upgrading of its laboratory testing infrastructure.

The Laboratory in Limerick this week commissioned a new state of the art analytical system that allows for the detection of substances, including anabolic steroids, at very low levels in samples taken from greyhounds.

The new top of the range equipment belongs to the triple-quadrupole liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) class of systems. It is very sensitive allowing for the detection of drugs such as anabolic steroids which may have been administered a considerable time before the greyhound was sampled and thus have very low levels of residues remaining in the sample. It will, for example, greatly improve the laboratory’s ability to detect metabolites of the anabolic steroid Stanozolol in samples from greyhounds.

Critically, the machine allows for a very large increase in the number of drugs which can be targeted in each analytical run on individual samples taken from greyhounds. This greatly improves the efficiency with which doping substances can be targeted in a drug control laboratory and allows for the potential to expand coverage to meet future needs.

Phil Meaney, chairman of the Irish Greyhound Board, said the installation of the new analytical system was the latest in a series of initiatives to establish a regulatory and enforcement environment that targeted non compliance with anti doping and medication controls.

“Last year, 5,383 samples taken from participating greyhounds were analysed at the IGB laboratory. Our stated intention is to eliminate any breaches of protocols and we won’t allow a small minority of owners or trainers to jeopardise our industry or our sport. This addition to our laboratory systems will greatly enhance our ability in that respect”, he said.