SOURCE: Reuters

(London, England) — Alphameric Plc (ALQQ.L: Quote, Profile, Research) signed a contract to provide horse racing television to a second of Britain's three largest bookmakers, despite a legal battle over racing coverage rights.

Alphameric's share price jumped more than 12 percent on the deal, between bookmaker Ladbrokes (LAD.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Amalgamated Racing, a joint venture between Alphameric and 30 of Britain's racecourses.

The contract announced on Wednesday follows a similar deal with Coral and a trader said another bookmaker, William Hill (WMH.L: Quote, Profile, Research), could be close to signing a third agreement.

"Discussions are ongoing. We don't want our customers to lose out on pictures our competitors have," a William Hill spokesman said, although he declined to comment on the likely timing of an agreement.

Alphameric was forced into an 11 million pound emergency rights issue in November after several leading bookmakers refused to sign up for Amalgamated Racing's Turf TV.

Some bookmakers are fighting the horse racing industry's move to allow Turf TV to break their near monopoly on race coverage and say that having two coverage providers increases their costs and creates clashes in race scheduling.

The Ladbrokes and Coral deals broke the deadlock.

"Within a year of launching the business, Turf TV has now signed up a good majority of the licensed betting offices in Great Britain and Ireland," said Alphameric Chief Executive Alan Morcombe.

The Turf TV channel has exclusive rights to pictures from its owner courses including Ascot, Newbury and Epsom.

By 1437 GMT shares in Alphameric were trading up 12.9 percent at 35 pence, their highest price in six months.

(Reporting by Chloe Fussell and John Bowker; Editing by Rory Channing and David Holmes)