The Tote bets on SOA much more

UK betting organisation the Tote is adopting a service-oriented architecture (SOA) to improve customer service, and develop new products faster and more cheaply.

The Tote holds the exclusive licence to run 'pool' betting on horse racing in the UK and has outlets on all of the 59 racecourses across the country, and also takes bets through its website, call centre, betting shops and through the other major bookmakers in the UK.

Historically, each of those betting channels has developed its own systems, which essentially carry out the same tasks - taking and settling bets - and the Tote has made the decision to use SOA to make better use of those legacy systems.

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Bob Broadbridge, IT director at the Tote, told silicon.com: "We have a lot of systems doing the same jobs - taking and settling bets. As those systems reach the end of their natural life they become cumbersome. The SOA vision allows us to reuse them."

Broadbridge said the Tote is taking a steady approach to adopting SOA "running at half speed" over the next two to three years. The first step for the Tote is a new service called 'Will Pays'.

The 'Will Pays' service has speeded up the time it takes the Tote to provide the latest odds and payout prices to punters on each horse ahead of the race, based on how much has been placed on its in-pool betting.

Broadbridge said: "Before the race goes ahead we have to quote to punters what we expect the price to be. The 'Will Pays' calculation system takes that from two minutes to 12 seconds."

That first SOA service for in-pool betting has primarily been "a DIY effort" but the Tote also used the Sonic Enterprise Service Bus product from Progress Software to develop functionality that can be built once and then reused across all its delivery channels.

Broadbridge said: "This will reduce costs and time-to-market for new betting products."

Andrew Ling, system architect at the Tote, said the component-based approach is initially a challenge for developers and advised other companies going down the SOA route to make sure they first agree on the principles and ensure they are fully communicated - and to use good governance.