RNS Number:7696V
Arena Leisure PLC
16 December 2005


16 December 2005

                          ARENA LEISURE PLC ("ARENA")

                             At The Races Statement

Arena Leisure Plc ("Arena") notes that At The Races ("ATR") and Doncaster
Metropolitan Borough Council have announced that they have they have agreed
terms for At The Races to secure media rights to broadcast racing from Doncaster
Town Moor Racecourse, home of the world's oldest classic, the St. Leger.

The full press release from At The Races is attached below.

                                    - ENDS -

For further information, please contact:

Arena Leisure Plc
Mark Elliott, Chief Executive 020 7495 2277

Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial
David Rydell / Zoe Sanders 020 7861 3232


AT THE RACES

PRESS RELEASE                                                16 December 2005

    AT THE RACES CONCLUDES MEDIA RIGHTS AGREEMENT WITH DONCASTER RACECOURSE

At The Races (ATR), the UK and Ireland's most watched dedicated horseracing
channel, and Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council are pleased to announce that
they have agreed terms for At The Races to secure media rights to broadcast
racing from Doncaster Town Moor Racecourse, home of the world's oldest classic
and the last in the British flat racing season, the Ladbrokes St. Leger.

The agreement commences immediately but shall be subject to certain rights
reserved to Racing UK until May 2007 when the racecourse's current media rights
agreement with Racing UK expires. There are currently 28 meetings per year at
the course.

Doncaster Council has launched plans to undergo a major redevelopment of its
racecourse facilities which will make it into one of the premier race venues in
the world. During the redevelopment, all fixtures, including the Ladbrokes
St.Leger, will be relocated to other racecourses. In the event that such
fixtures transfer to racecourses affiliated to ATR then the broadcaster will
have exclusive domestic and international media rights.

Doncaster Racecourse will greatly benefit from exposure on the UK's most popular
horseracing channel which attracts over 1.2 million different viewers each
month. ATR is committed not only to raising the profile of the racecourse
domestically but also increasing levels of awareness on the international stage
as racing from Town Moor will be broadcast around the globe. The increased
exposure that Doncaster will receive means that the racecourse is likely to see
its revenues grow further through additional advertising and sponsorship
opportunities.

In addition, as well as the substantial benefits received as part of agreeing
this deal with ATR, a compromise has been reached between ATR and Doncaster
Metropolitan Borough Council in respect of the ongoing rebate claim which ATR
has been pursuing under its old media rights agreement.

Matthew Imi, Chief Executive, At The Races, said:

"We are delighted to have reached this agreement with Doncaster Metropolitan
Borough Council. We look forward to working with them and Arena Leisure to
further develop the profile of the racecourse as well as playing our part in
driving their incremental revenues domestically and from the investment we are
making in our expanding international business. Upon completion of its
redevelopment programme Doncaster racecourse will be one of the top racing
venues in the world and with ATR as its media partner can be guaranteed a broad
audience reach for its high quality dual code fixture list."

Mayor of Doncaster, Martin Winter said:

"These are exciting times for Doncaster with the redevelopment in the pipeline.
Ensuring that racing from Doncaster has good media coverage is crucial and we
are very confident that ATR will greatly increase the exposure of the course
both here and abroad."

                                    - ENDS -

For further information, please contact:

Matthew Imi, Chief Executive
At The Races Tel: 020 7954 3000

David Rydell / Zoe Sanders
Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial Tel: 0207 861 3232


NOTES TO EDITORS

   * At The Races ("ATR") is the UK and Ireland's most watched dedicated
    horseracing channel. It launched on June 11th 2004.

   * It is a joint venture between BSkyB, Arena Leisure plc, Ascot
    Racecourse, Northern Racing and several other racecourse partners. It has
    agreements with 28 UK racecourses and all 27 Irish racecourses.

   * Broadcasting 24 hours a day in basic subscription packages, At The Races
    is currently available to 10 million multi-channel subscribers across the UK
    and Ireland through Sky, NTL, Chorus, Telewest and NTL Ireland.


   * Over 1.2 million individuals tune into the channel every month. An
    average of 40,000 to 50,000 are watching at any time during live UK and
    Irish racing with a record 360,000 different individuals tuning into the
    channel on one day.

   * Outside the UK and Ireland At The Races distributes its content into
    over 20 countries by means of its own international channel - "At The Races
    International"- and through its agreement with SIS. Territories include
    Holland, Germany, the Caribbean, Sri Lanka, the UAE, Italy, South Africa and
    Australia.

   * At The Races broadcasts racing from over 1,000 UK and Irish race
    meetings per year and is the only UK channel broadcasting live racing from
    the USA on a daily basis. It also broadcasts high quality racing from
    France, Italy, Spain, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, Dubai and
    Germany.

   * In addition to its broadcast activities, At The Races generates up to #2
    million per week in turnover from interactive red button betting on the Sky
    platform alone. An interactive betting service recently launched on the NTL
    cable network and ATR also has an agreement with Telewest to quickly develop
    a similar interactive betting application.

   * In May 2005, in partnership with William Hill, At The Races was the
    first UK broadcaster to launch a live, daily sports service to 3G mobile
    users in the UK.

   * Attheraces.com, run in partnership with SkySports.com, has quickly
    established itself as the No. 2 domestic horseracing website, behind
    RacingPost.co.uk, with nearly 300,000 monthly unique users and over 20
    million monthly page impressions.

   * At The Races also successfully launched its branded casino and poker
    sites - attheracescasino.com and attheracespoker.com - with the objective of
    occupying the position of 'racing's online casino'.






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            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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