SBC News Countdown to Cheltenham: Racing Post discusses getting 'festival ready'

Countdown to Cheltenham: Racing Post discusses getting ‘festival ready’

There’s less than a week to go in the Countdown to Cheltenham, and the racing industry has ramped up its pre-Festival campaign.

Speaking to Head of Betting at Racing Post, Brian Morris, he told SBC how they’re getting Festival-ready, which runners and riders are worth keeping an eye on, and whether he thinks Al Boum Photo could retain his Gold Cup title.

SBC: How is Racing Post getting festival-ready?

Brian Morris: As with everyone in the industry, the Cheltenham Festival is the critical week of our year. The planning period seems to get longer every year and for this year’s festival, we started during Cheltenham 2019! As a group, we are completely focused on the customer and we were keen to gather as much data as possible on what customers wanted in the lead up to, on the morning of, during and after racing. This ranged from which editorial previews were most read across all our platforms, to which tweets generated most engagement, to bookmaker feedback on the Betting Shop Display. 

We also take our role in relation to responsible gambling very seriously, which is why we are one of the founding members of Responsible Affiliates in Gambling (RAiG group). As part of this we will be placing extra emphasis on responsible gambling messaging across all our channels this year.

We know Cheltenham is one of the few occasions each year when racing is the dominant sport among the wider audience and this gives us an excellent opportunity to engage new racing fans. Part of this involves giving them a great experience wherever they are consuming our content. Our hope is that if we deliver this then we may convince some of them to stay on our products to study the tips and form for the Midlands National at Uttoxeter the day after the Gold Cup!

We are also keen to work with our bookmaker partners to analyse and focus on the offers and promotions which work best for the customer around the festival. There is a huge marketing effort in the industry around Cheltenham and it can be difficult for bookmakers to connect the customer with the right promotion at the right time. Over many years we have developed excellent relationships with the partnership teams at bookmakers and we will be working especially hard to ensure their campaigns are as successful as possible.

SBC: Three of the shortest-priced favourites of Cheltenham Festival week are lined up to race on the Wednesday – do you think bookmakers should be worried about a ‘Wednesday wipeout’? Or have these suggestions been overplayed?

Brian Morris: There have been a few big scares for bookmakers in recent years, with Willie Mullins at Cheltenham 2015, Ryan Moore on Lincoln day 2017 and Frankie Dettori at Royal Ascot 2019 standing out. It is unlikely the Wednesday of Cheltenham this year will be anywhere on the scale of those and if the three short-priced horses: Envoi Allen, Tiger Roll and Appreciate It are the only winning favourites on the day then I’m sure the bookmakers will be okay.

It is the case that the proportion of multiple bets placed across the industry does increase at the festivals, and we see this with bets placed through the Racing Post app. That means if a string of favourites or fancied horses start going in it can be very nervous times indeed for bookmakers!

SBC: The Gold Cup has not been defended since Best Mate won it for the third time in 2004, what are the chances of joint-favourite Al Boum Photo doing it for Willie Mullins this year?

Brian Morris:  While Al Boum Photo may become the first horse since 2004 to defend the Gold Cup, he would surely become the first horse to ever defend the Gold Cup after winning his prep races at Tramore! He obviously has an excellent chance given this year’s race may not be quite as strong as 12 months ago and he goes there in excellent form with most of his rivals having bigger questions to answer.

SBC: Racing Post is known as one of the leading source of horseracing information – how are you boosting customer engagement with the Cheltenham Festival in 2020?

Brian Morris:  We expect to drive engagement across more platforms than ever before for Cheltenham 2020. The biggest change this year is we are launching a live watch-along show called ‘Racing Post Live’ in partnership with Betfair. We are tremendously excited about the opportunity to have more than three hours a day of live video covering the festival. We’ll have a mix of our regular headliners and guest talent making up a crack team of experts who will present a new way to cover racing in the digital space.

We will reach recreational audiences more often and in more places thanks to the work we did on AMP last summer. This really grows our reach on mobile web and, combined with our content being Google News approved, gives us scale well beyond what we have had before. We have also built a market-leading microsite which neatly summarises tips by race, with the option to filter by who is giving their selection for each race and to see odds comparison.

On the B2B side, we are now positioned better than ever thanks to the recent launch of our new group, Spotlight Sports Group, which offers a wide range of services: media, including sponsorship and advertising, sports and racing content, retail products, our new AllSported trading service, our digital marketing agency and translation to bookmakers and partners throughout the festival.  

SBC: And finally, are there any runners that SBC readers should be keeping an eye on?

Brian Morris:  We are very lucky to have one of the best and most trusted tipsters in the business on the Racing Post roster in Paul Kealy, and in a Live Festival Preview Q+A on racingpost.com last week he volunteered the following as his ‘bankers’ of the festival – “Shiskin in the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ (Tuesday), Imperial Aura in the Northern Trust Novice Handicap Chase (Tuesday) and Itchy Feet in the Marsh Novices’ Chase (Thursday).

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