Seven days … in wagering –  Who owns racing’s customers?

In this edition:

• Putting a name on it – why bookies sponsor race clubs
• ‘Kicking the door in’ – Picklebet’s edgy ad campaign
• A betting blue – Ex-punter free to pursue refund of $522,000 in losing bets
• Betr opens offer for PointsBet, as MIXI takes greater stake
• ‘Textbook example of government overreach’ – Bowlers banned in New Jersey
• Waterhouse VC – Lessons from Ben Keith

When it comes to maintaining a relationship with racing’s customers, Australia’s Principal Racing Authorities lost the battle a long time ago.

While trainers, syndicators and sales companies retain commercial relationships with owners, clubs with members and sales companies and vendors with breeders, the biggest customer cohort belongs to Australia’s corporate bookmakers, who know everything they need to know about punters.

Sportsbet, which holds around 45 per cent of the online market, has 1.2 million active monthly players across its products. Tabcorp has 800,000 and Entain around the same.

While PRAs and clubs seek to move the needle with carnival-based marketing campaigns and social media activations, the power to move the market when it comes to racing firmly belongs with the bookies, for right or for wrong.

As Nathan Arundell, Sportsbet’s chief commercial officer, put it to The Straight:

“I think they (the racing industry) are now realising we are their marketing arm. We’re the ones that have got the direct relationship with the customer and they need us to help them stimulate racing,” he said.

It has rarely been put as directly as that, but it’s hard to argue with the logic. Bookies have the numbers, the technology and the product to instantly reach millions of racing fans.

Arundell’s comments were part of an article we penned this week on the relationship between race clubs and their sponsors, which are primarily corporate bookmakers.

The galling aspect for racing administrators, both past and present, is that while technology and products have driven much of the bookmakers’ customer acquisition, it is the value of the customers themselves that has seen the bookies’ fortunes explode.

To give some context, albeit based on some crude calculations, Sportsbet generates around 10 per cent of Flutter’s global revenue. Flutter’s market cap is circa AU$77 billion, which on those measures, puts Sportsbet at around $7 billion. You could buy Rosehill for that and have a chunk of change to roll in Warwick Farm and Canterbury as well.

When the corporate bookmaking revolution began with a 2008 High Court case, most of Australia’s racing administrators quivered in their boots and clung on tightly to the legs of Tabcorp. They missed the boat on a new era of customer acquisition.

You would have thought by 2024, that customer retention might have moved up the priority list. But when Tabcorp’s long joint venture with the Victorian racing industry finished, you can guess who ended up with the customer data. It wasn’t the VRI.

Speaking of Tabcorp, they confirmed this week that they have appointed a new executive producer for Sky Racing, in former Ten Network executive Frank Smith.

Back to marketing, and Picklebet has continued its push to acquire new customers, with a bold new advert, encouraging people to “Get Your Pickle On”.

If you prefer your bookmaking strategy a little more old school, then an article from Waterhouse VC on Ben Keith, the man behind Star Sports, might be more in your lane.

In other wagering news this week, New Jersey has outlawed bowling, or proxy betting as it is termed in the United States, while BlueBet, now part of the betr company, could be forced to repay a punter over $500,000 over two breaches of its licence.

Betr, meanwhile, remains in the fight for PointsBet, just, after getting its offer open to shareholders this week. In the meantime, MIXI has increased its share in PointsBet to 36.7 per cent.

Don’t forget to check out this week’s edition of Straight Talk, featuring interviews with G1-winning jockey turned racing exec Clare Lindop as well as with Inglis’ Chris Russell.

Enjoy your wagering week,

Regards

Bren O’Brien

Managing Editor and Founder

The Straight