Rights payments to RMG courses break £100m and may not have peaked yet

The tracks affiliated to Racecourse Media Group (RMG) will be paid nearly £110 million from media and data rights generated last year and the organisation's chief executive Richard FitzGerald believes that income has not yet peaked despite the pressure on betting shops.

RMG's 37 racecourses, which include those under the Jockey Club banner as well as Ascot, Goodwood and York, will receive £109.7m, an 18 per cent increase on 2017.

However, RMG's chairman Roger Lewis said the government's decision to reduce FOBT stakes to £2, which is expected to lead to widespread betting-shop closures and a reduction in media-rights income, would "significantly reduce the financial contribution" from betting shops to racing.

RMG's annual results did not set out the proportion of total rights income provided by betting shops in 2018, but the figure was around 56 per cent in 2016 and is likely to have grown following the start of the new betting-shop contract with SIS last year.

FitzGerald acknowledged that the new FOBT stake would have a negative impact but added: "Even so, we're confident media-rights income hasn't peaked as there is work firmly in hand to mitigate against these headwinds.

"While a challenge, it also presents an opportunity for us to improve racing’s competitiveness as a betting product in LBOs [licensed betting offices].

"Our new LBO contract with SIS began in April 2018 and not only led to increased licence fees, but also empowered our racecourses to enhance racing as a betting product through a combination of data sharing and incentivised licence fee distribution. We're confident this collective approach will be of great mutual benefit to both the racing and betting industries."

He added: "We're also looking at ways we can enhance our digital media product, especially the in-running elements and ways to bet, which we are hopeful will go a long way to replace revenues lost from LBOs. We feel, as a collective, we are well placed to meet these challenges and create the best outcome for our racecourses."

The rebranded Racing TV took over the broadcasting of Irish racing at the start of 2019 and FitzGerald said that in the first three months of 2019 RTV memberships had more than doubled in Ireland to nearly 12,000.

Richard FitzGerald: positive bulletinCredit: Ruk

However, there has been criticism of the coverage, with accusations Irish racing has been treated like a "second-class citizen" by the channel.

FitzGerald said that "on the whole" RMG has been happy with the coverage, although he admitted "we have not always got it right".

He added: "We did have some issues, centred on a couple of Saturdays and New Year’s Day, when the schedules were very challenging.

"We certainly took all the feedback on board and will continue close dialogue with the BHA and HRI about the planning and management of race times, and there has been improvement on that front in recent weeks. We’ll continue to work hard to ensure we are delivering a first-class product to our audience."

FitzGerald said RMG was delighted with ITV's coverage of the sport, with the broadcaster now in the third year of its four-year contract.

Average audiences on the main ITV channel were 44 per cent higher than in Channel 4's final year and audience share was 63 per cent greater.

FitzGerald said: "The audiences that ITV provide to racing create an important shop window for the sport and ITV values the importance of having racing as part of its sports portfolio."

He added that discussions had commenced about the next contract and went on: "We are confident that racing and ITV will continue to work harder than ever to expand racing’s shop window and engage with new audiences with innovative production and storytelling."

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