Paddy Power to take over as main sponsor of ITV's racing coverage

Paddy Power will become the title sponsors of ITV Racing's live coverage from New Year's Day as part of a new two-year deal.

Betfair, who are a stablemate of the bookmaker as part of the Flutter Entertainment group, will sponsor ITV's magazine programme The Opening Show as part of the agreement.

They take over from William Hill who sponsored ITV Racing when the channel won the rights for the coverage from 2017.

It was announced in the summer that ITV would continue as the exclusive free-to-air broadcaster of British horseracing until 2023 after protracted negotiations.

Mark Trinder, director of commercial sales and partnerships at ITV, said: "ITV Racing has become the bedrock of our ITV Sport programming calendar. The weekly output and excellent expert presentation has taken racing to new levels in terms of profile and audiences.

Ed Chamberlin: leads ITV's 'excellent expert presentation'Credit: Edward Whitaker

"I welcome Flutter Entertainment to the fold as our new broadcast sponsor. It’s great to be working alongside the team there on what I'm sure will be another vintage year at the races."

No figure has been put on the worth of the sponsorship agreement, although William Hill's deal was thought to be about £10 million over the four years of the original ITV contract.

The new partnership includes broadcast, catch up, digital, social, podcast and licensing rights, and Flutter brands will feature in the ITV Racing App, including the ITV7 competition.

Paddy Power marketing director Michelle Spillane said: "ITV Racing has been brilliant for the sport for the last four years and we viewed it as a natural synergy to become headline sponsor for the Bafta award-winning show.

"We're looking forward to working with the immensely talented ITV team for at least the next two years and it’s great to be an integral part of a presentation that produces sporting history for our customers week in and week out."

Meanwhile, Paddy Power's Millionaire Chase, in which one of their qualifying customers has the chance to win a £/€1 million main prize, will now culminate at Cheltenham's festival trials day on January 30 after the abandonment of the January 1 meeting at the course.

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