Will Hill punters to bet on the 3Gee-gees

William Hill and sports broadcaster At The Races have teamed up to offer UK punters access to live horse racing feeds as well as betting services, analysis, preview and news footage via handsets on the 3 mobile phone network.

Horse racing fans with the 3G video handsets will be able to tune in to the service, which officially launches today following a month-long trial.

David Harding, CEO of William Hill, said he believes the growing number of 3G handsets in use in the UK, and the growing popularity of gaming and sports betting, means such services have huge scope to grow.

Video calls on the service will be billed per second at a pricey £1 per minute, meaning races such as the 10-minute Grand National would be a costly affair while this weekend's Vodafone Derby would have set users back around £2.50 to watch.

And speaking of Vodafone, the At The Races 3G service will be rolled out to users on that network, as well as Orange customers in the coming weeks.

Asked whether 3 had been responsible for delaying the official launch until after the Vodafone Derby for competitive reasons, Matthew Imi, CEO of At The Races, claimed the timing is more to cash in on the upcoming Ascot festival.

Imi told silicon.com: "We wanted to give the service some exposure in advance of Royal Ascot at York and decided today was the best time to officially launch.

"3 was the first platform to get themselves ready to launch. Vodafone and Orange will be launching the service imminently."