Walker to broadcast racing to Russia

George Walker, who previously headed the Brent Walker leisure group and was acquitted last year on £19m fraud charges, is understood to have raised £5m of private backing to broadcast horse racing live in Russia from tracks in the UK, Ireland, France and South Africa.

A pilot scheme involving broadcasting race meetings in English to two casinos in St Petersburg and Moscow will soon be followed by transmissions in Russian. Owners of more than 2,000 outlets, ranging from corner shops to casinos, are understood to have applied to take the service with commentary in Russian, which should be available in time for the Derby in June.

Besides the racing, which comes via rights Mr Walker's Telesport company acquired from Satellite Information Services, there are plans to use the television channel to broadcast other programmes.