Racing Media Group (RMG) will pay its racecourse shareholders a record £117.6m from its commercial activities generated in 2022, despite what it said were headwinds created from the UK Government’s review into gambling.
The payment from the umbrella body to 35 racecourses comes from its media and data rights that include live streaming of race meetings to betting shops, its television channel Racing TV and a deal with ITV for horseracing coverage. The payment is up on the £110m in 2021.
Last week the UK Government published its review of the 2005 Gambling Act with a white paper setting out a series of proposals including financial risk checks for online betting and enhanced checks for those gambling aged between 18 and 24.
RMG, whose shareholders include racecourses Aintree and Cheltenham, said the review process has led to bookmakers ramping up levels of affordability checking, resulting in clear and material reduction in betting turnover since last summer.
RMG is chaired by Cefn Cribwr-born Mr Lewis, a former chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union and chairman of Cardiff Airport, who will stand down in October. He first joined the board of RMG in 2012 before being appointed non-executive chairman in January, 2019.
Mr Lewis said: “On behalf of everyone at RMG I thank all the racecourses, owners, breeders, trainers, jockeys, stable staff and our valued media, technical broadcast, commercial and betting partners for their help and support in enabling RMG to play its role effectively.
“I step down from the board of this year, having joined the company in 2012. It has been a huge privilege and a great honour to have worked with so many wonderful people. I sincerely welcome my successor, Conor Grant, formerly chief executive of Flutter UK and Ireland, who takes up the reins as Chairman, on October 1st.
Looking to the future, Martin Stevenson, chief executive of RMG, said: “We believe that innovation is key for the business and racecourses to help grow appeal and engagement with the sport, and provide a platform to deliver growth in licence fees to racecourses and the sport in the future.
“A fundamental building block in technical innovation for the business is the deployment of a highly reliable and accurate tracking system, which we have achieved via the award-winning Coursetrack.
“Beyond purely providing timing, the importance of tracking is that it provides a wealth of real time data that the business can now utilise to develop new products and innovations. These include the roll-out of in-play betting on RMG’s content, currently deployed by BetVictor and William Hill, and with more bookmakers in the pipeline.
“We have also significantly enhanced our broadcast output, with advances to the virtual studio, the roll-out of augmented reality graphics, the gradual move to remote production, and developments to the production of dedicated racecourse streams. This is bringing horseracing TV coverage up to the high levels that other sports, like football and cricket, enjoy.
“With media increasingly being consumed through digital channels, driving innovation is key to growing audiences and engagement through these platforms. This approach blends well with our focus on strengthening the core capabilities which have enabled us to grow to where we are today, ensuring the business remains ready for the future.”
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