Levy Board commits more than £1 million to ITV's Champions: Full Gallop after 'compelling proposition' from key stakeholders

The Horserace Betting Levy Board has given details of its commitment of more than £1 million towards the production costs and promotional budget for series two of ITV's Champions: Full Gallop docuseries.

The Racing Post revealed last week that filming had already begun for the series, which is produced for ITV by South Shore, and that six 60-minute episodes had been commissioned, details of which were confirmed on Tuesday by ITV in conjunction with the betting and gaming company Flutter, who have part-financed both seasons of the show.

The Levy Board was not involved in series one, but chief executive Alan Delmonte described a proposal from British racing's key stakeholders to make Champions: Full Gallop a key part of its promotional effort in 2025 as "a more compelling proposition to support than with alternatives in the past".

Delmonte said: "It was felt by the racing organisations and [British racing's marketing arm] Great British Racing that this was going to be a significant part of the promotion for next year, so we’ve gone ahead with support for this item first, and we’ll look at the rest in the early part of 2025. 

Levy Board chief executive Alan Delmonte

"One of the things that we felt was a particular positive is that racing’s organisations, including GBR, expressed a view that with this second series, and a longer lead-in time to promote it, it should be possible to do more with the promotion, in particular around the jockeys involved, than was possible first time round.

"In addition to support around the production costs, we will be giving part of the promotional budget for next year to GBR to promote the series."

Delmonte confirmed that the Levy Board's contribution would be £865,000 towards production costs and an additional £250,000 towards Great British Racing's marketing effort around the series.

But he pointed out that, while the total sum of £1.115m was a substantial amount, it should be viewed in the context of the board having given little financial support to marketing efforts in 2024.

Champions: Full Gallop will be produced by South Shore for ITVCredit: South Shore/ITV

"The principle of a multi-pronged promotional approach, one that is stated in good time, we found a more compelling proposition to support than with alternatives in the past," said Delmonte, who underlined that the historical average for the Levy's support of the promotion of racing fell somewhere between £2.5m and £3m annually but ran to much less than that in 2024 after racing and the HBLB mutually agreed to revisit plans in 2025. 

He added: "We’re not putting anything into the [David Power] Jockeys' Cup, but you can see the synergy and the potential of joint-marketing the series, in conjunction with the Jockeys’ Cup, all of which gives the chance for a more coordinated promotional platform than has been the case in the past. 

"So it's important to view this as around £1m on one element as part of what could be potentially a bigger amount [on promotion] in 2025, although that remains to be seen."

Read this next:

'It's a huge opportunity for the sport' - ITV's Champions: Full Gallop to return for second series in new year 

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