- Visual identity aimed to clearly signpost racing’s premier product will be in place for the first Premier Raceday at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day
- Premier Raceday will be visible across racecourses, racecards, broadcast, betting and promotional material
- Introduction of the Premier Raceday identity represents first step in racing’s plan to promote Premier Racedays through 2024, with fan engagement and innovation initiatives in development
- Plans also in place to secure promotional and marketing support
- Racing’s leaders share their views on the ongoing development of Premier Racedays
The introduction of the visual identity for Premier Racedays has today marked the first step of British Racing’s plans to market and promote the sport’s best racedays.
170 Premier Racedays have been programmed in 2024, underpinned by criteria around prize money and the quality of racing. They have the intention of delivering consistent, high-quality racing which can be differentiated from the rest of the fixture list and better promoted to showcase the sport to new and existing audiences.
Over 90% of Premier Racedays are broadcast on ITV and account for the majority of Britain’s most famous and best-attended racedays and racing will be using these shop window opportunities to promote more interest in the sport.
Premier Racedays are being run as part of a two-year pilot of changes across the sport which have the aim of growing British racing by increasing engagement among new and existing customers, improving revenues across all areas of the industry, promoting investment in the sport through the recruitment and retention of owners, and encouraging the best horses to be bred, trained and raced in Britain.
As of January, beginning with Cheltenham racecourse’s New Year’s Day fixture, Premier Racedays will be identifiable by a new visual identity, with the aim of signposting to customers the sport’s best quality racing.
Versions of the Premier Raceday logo:
The visual identity was agreed through the sport’s Commercial Committee and the BHA Board. It will be visible in racecards, on racecourses, broadcast, betting, and promotional material associated with Premier Racedays, and marks the first of what will be an ongoing rollout of promotional and fan engagement initiatives and innovations over the course of 2024.
It is intended that Premier Racedays will be supported by focussed marketing and promotional support, including through Great British Racing’s operational budget (net c. £1.6m plus potential reserves), racecourse marketing spend and, significantly, plans for a major national promotional campaign, pending submission of an application to the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) in line with HBLB funding criteria.
Premier Racedays through 2024 will also see the introduction of innovation in the fan experience on an ongoing basis, for those attending on racecourses, betting, and watching on broadcast.
Key areas of innovation in 2024 will include:
- Customer promotion: Using consumer insight from racecourses and bookmakers, there will be increased promotion of Premier Racedays, to targeted customer groups including paid and earned media.
- Broadcast innovation: Working with all broadcasters, there will be trials of initiatives to enhance the broadcast appeal of Premier Racedays (such as pre-race previews, behind-the-scenes access, greater use of visual data and drone usage), as well as a focus on improving the basics – such as race off times – to improve betting opportunities.
- Customer experience: Enhancements to the racegoer experience will be trialled, including simplified race cards, better explanation of racing’s language, a more engaging experience around the paddock and greater use of data.
- Digital content strategy: Using racing’s social media reach (which exceeds 32 million people), racing’s content strategy will focus on the build-up to Premier Racedays, through jockey, horse and trainer content, race meeting previews and behind the scenes content, all carrying the Premier Raceday Brand.
- Athlete promotion: The sport will lead a new and major focus on greater storytelling around our athletes – the jockeys – with significantly increased video content, exclusive race previews and contracted appearances in the wider media.
- Betting: Racing will collaborate with bookmakers to offer incentives around Premier Racedays, work on joint promotional content, differentiated markets and special offers, simplified language and explainers.
Alongside the fan-focused engagement initiatives, significant work is also in development to improve the ownership experience both on and off-course, with initiatives to be rolled out in 2024 and further detail to follow in due course.
More information about Premier Racedays can be found here.
British racing has set out its targets for the two-year pilot period, with ambitions set out to improve the landscape around attendances, betting, ownership, quality of racing and the viewer experience.
RACING’S LEADERS SHARE THEIR VIEWS ON PREMIER RACEDAYS
Leaders across British racing and the broadcast and betting industries have today set out their views, hopes and expectations around the impact of Premier Racedays over the coming years:
The Chairs of the BHA, Racecourse Association and Thoroughbred Group set out their views as follows:
Julian Richmond-Watson, Chair of the Thoroughbred Group (TG), said:
“I am pleased to see Premier Racing up and running and the sport’s participants will play a key role in how the sport is promoted. Our members will engage positively to make Premier Racing a success.
“It is self-evident that if we grow the sport this should ultimately benefit everyone involved, including trainers, owners, stable employees and breeders.
“Work being done on improving all aspects of Premier Racing, including the ownership experience are to be welcomed.”
Joe Saumarez Smith, Chair of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), said:
“British racing’s stakeholders unanimously agreed the way to grow our sport is to better showcase and sell our best racing. The pilot of Premier Racedays is the start of this process.
“Due to the way that our sport is structured the first priority for the sport was to put the building blocks in place in the form of the changes to the fixture list and race programme and secure the improved funding of prize money. There is little point trying to sell Premier Racedays if the product is not, in fact, Premier.
“Substantial work is also underway to ensure that the industry is properly structured – and funded – to be able to better promote the new Racedays, as well as improving the racing experience for all our customers, be they racegoers, armchair viewers, owners or punters. The agreed vision is that all of these efforts will result in growth in the sport with a trickle-down effect which supports the long term sustainability of the industry at all levels.
“I am grateful to everyone who has been involved in the ongoing development of these plans, including those directly involved in the sport and our partners in broadcast, the media and betting”.
Wilf Walsh, Chair of the Racecourse Association (RCA), said:
“British racing needs to focus relentlessly on growing income and creating additional fans through improved marketing and promotion. The recent changes to the fixture list and the introduction of Premier Racing during this two year trial period represent encouraging initial steps. The RCA is committed to working constructively with all participants to secure the long-term health of our sport.”
Further comments have been offered by leaders from across the industry and its partners:
Nick Attenborough, Chair of the Professional Jockeys Association (PJA), said:
’We’re lucky to have some of the best jockeys in the world so it makes perfect sense to capitalise on their skills to promote racing to new and younger audiences. Making jockeys the ‘stars of the sport’ has proved very successful in other racing jurisdictions, such as Japan and Hong Kong, and will work just as well here.’’
Seb Butterworth, Director of Flutter, said:
“Flutter have been working closely with racing over the last 3 years to help put the customer at the centre of racing’s proposition.
“One area we are particularly excited about is the roll out of simplified racecards. Racing is often cited as a difficult to understand and engage with sport – particularly from a form perspective – and these new racecards, developed upon customer research and feedback, will be aimed at demystifying racing and making this amazing sport more accessible to a broader demographic.
“We are really looking forward to working with racing to roll these out across Premier Racedays in 2024 and beyond.”
Martin Cruddace, Chief Executive of Arena Racing Company (ARC), said:
“We are entering a new and important era for racing, and I am pleased to see the the sport continue to look at ways of modernising and becoming more accessible for new and existing fans alike.
“All of our racecourses that host a Premier Raceday are very much looking forward to doing so, and promoting and sign posting them accordingly. We hope and expect that it will make a difference when it comes to attracting and retaining racing fans.”
Alex Eade Director of the Large Independent Racecourses, said:
“The Large Independent Racecourses welcome this first step on the road towards a sustainable future for our fabulous sport. As custodians of over a third of Premier fixtures we intend to play our part in this important project signposting our very best product and customer experience wherever we can. Making our sport the first choice for a cohort of new fans has to be the long-term aim”.
Paul Johnson, Chief Executive of the National Trainers Federation (NTF), said:
“We hold the view that our sport needs to have a far greater focus on the customer if it is to stay relevant and compete for public attention. For this reason, we are supportive of the initial steps taken to improve competitiveness and focus attention on the best of our horses, participants and venues.”
Charlie Parker, President of the Racehorse Owners Association (ROA), said:
“Premier Racedays need to play a major part in reviving our sport, so it is good to see that the promotion of those days is starting to take shape ahead of January 1. There has been a lot of hard work to get to this point and that will continue going forward. It is vital to ensure that the investors in racehorses begin to be better rewarded and the fans that watch and bet on those horses feel better informed and more engaged.”
Niall Sloane, Director of Sport for ITV, said:
“ITV is always looking for ways to improve the sport’s broadcast coverage. We are working closely with the sport on innovation as Premier Racing rolls out in 2024. We’re keen to be involved in opportunities that arise as part of that including enhanced use of performance data.”
Rod Street, Chief Executive of Great British Racing, said:
“The Premier Raceday identity is a quality kitemark and the start point for making our best racing distinct. I am encouraged that broadcasters, betting operators, racecourses and media partners are showing enthusiasm for the concept and integrating into their promotion and coverage of the sport.
“Premier racing will be supported by promotion initially from GBR and racecourses marketing budgets, with an industry application planned for central funding via the Levy Board which, if successful, will allow for a national promotional campaign.”
Nevin Truesdale, Chief Executive of the Jockey Club, said:
“At the Jockey Club we were particularly keen to use our Cheltenham New Year’s Day fixture to showcase the new Premier Raceday identity. The identity will be visible across the racecourse, on digital media, in racecards and for those watching on television.
“The Jockey Club is fully supportive of what British racing is doing to attract the attention of the public. This is all about showing off our very best fixtures and making them clearly identifiable to our fans. We want Premier Racedays to become accepted parlance amongst sports fans, identified with first class racing, engaging viewing or an unbeatable day out.”
