Chairman of Racing Media Group (RMG), Roger Lewis, has seen his role extended for a further year to support a transition to a new chair.
Cefn Cribwr-born Mr Lewis, a former chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union and chairman of Cardiff Airport, has been a board member of RMG - which provides media right management to its racecourse shareholders who include Aintree, York and Ascot - first joined the board of RMG a decade ago. Since then it has increased its licence fees and dividend payments to its racecourse owners from £45m to more than £110m.
He was appointed non-executive independent chairman at the beginning of 2019. He was due to step down this year, but has been asked by the board to extend his tenure. A new chair will be appointed next year.
RMG’s coverage of horse racing in the UK and the Republic of Ireland includes a terrestrial TV deal with ITV, live coverage to betting shops and its multi-platform subscription channel, Racing TV.
Mr Lewis said “RMG is in great shape, and it is an honour to be asked to continue to Chair the company. We have a strong board and an outstanding team of executives, led by chief executive Martin Stevenson, who together have delivered in spectacular fashion for our racecourses and indeed for the sport of racing.
“We are on track to exceed our record results of last year and we pay tribute to everyone in racing, and give thanks to our racecourses, for allowing RMG to manage their media and data rights across the world.”
Nevin Truesdale, chief executive of Jockey Club Racecourses, chief shareholder in RMG, said: “I would like to pay tribute to Roger Lewis for a very effective and successful stewardship of RMG, a business which is of fundamental importance to the financial performance of racecourses and therefore to the whole sport of horseracing.
“Under his leadership, we have faced a number of challenges, in particular during the Covid pandemic, where the robustness of the RMG model was critical to maintaining racecourse financial stability in the absence of other revenue streams for a sustained period. Roger’s influence in establishing long term deals with key commercial betting and broadcast partners during his tenure has also been hugely positive. On behalf of everyone at the Jockey Club, I would like to thank Roger for all he has done for the business.”
Mr Stevenson said: “We are delighted Roger Lewis has agreed to stay on for almost another year. Roger has been instrumental in the development and success of RMG over the last 12 years, so much so, that the business has now contributed more than £1bn to the sport since the Group’s inception.
“RMG is one the most successful sporting and media rights companies in Britain and Ireland and I look forward to working with Roger in 2023 to take RMG to even greater heights.”
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