This week Epsom racecourse popped the champagne corks, after the long search to secure a sponsor for its two-day Derby festival ended following what looked like one of the world’s most prestigious horse races going ahead without a backer.
Peter McNeile – director of sponsorship at Cheltenham racecourse and a leading figure in the commercial climate of the sport – told BritSport Weekly that the deal should not only be celebrated in the current financial environment but that the nature of the deal represents the underlining premise that horseracing is, and should never be, reliant on the backing the gambling industry.
“As a sport we constantly try to broaden our reach beyond betting partners,” he said. “Ever since the 1992 tax changes sports gambling companies have been more aggressive in terms of making sponsorship deals, both within and without horseracing.”
“But it is the nirvana of a racecourse to present an offering in which gambling is just one appeal. Racing is not just about betting and it is important that any one event does not appear one-dimensional.”
It is believed in recent weeks a number of leading bookmakers were offered the Derby sponsorship, for a figure reported to be £400,000 per year. Yet it was Investec, a joint UK-South African specialist banking group with commercial interests in English rugby union, that agreed a five-year deal starting next month. The weekend event, which takes place every year on the first weekend of June, had lost its sponsorship deal with Vodafone this year after a 14-year association with the mobile phone operator.
So how widespread is gambling sponsorship within the sport? Despite the Derby having nearly two decades-worth of backing from outside the industry, and the nation’s highest-profile Grand National at Aintree backed by brewer John Smiths, at UK courses it is hard to see the wood for the trees in terms of the banners of the world’s biggest bookies.
For 2009, Cheltenham’s Gold Cup was backed by totesport, the 1000 and 2000 Guineas at Newmarket by Stan James and the final-day of Glorious Goodwood at the start of the August is sponsored by Blue Square, in the last year of a three-year contract. The Derby and the National partnerships are those that McNeile believes should be outlined for future commercial deals in the sport. Presenting horseracing as “purely a gambling medium is to misconstrue the theatre of the sport,” he adds.
Nevertheless it is certainly clear that there is a value for brand by aligning themselves with traditional horseracing races that every year receive a great amount of exposure of interest from the British public.
“A steeplechase can be over in 6 minutes and the Derby 2 minutes, but the biggest events have a great penetration. People will be talking about who is running in the Derby, Grand National or Cheltenham Festival for months before and after so it is far more than just about the race itself. Racing is as much in the anticipation as the event itself.”
