Entain Edition – August 2024

[Wandering Eyes]

Welcome to another Entain Edition – the first one for the 2024/25 season.

Last week, the full Entain Australia and New Zealand Executive team came together in Sydney to take stock of where we are at, and to ensure we are on the same page in terms of priorities.

These sessions are not what most would expect. There are no PowerPoint presentations. No cumbersome bureaucratic processes to wade through. No long-winded papers that are heavy on corporate jargon and light on ideas. We genuinely keep things pretty simple at Entain – what is working, what isn’t, what do we need to change, and how are we going to change it.

It’s a formula that works for us and is also what has allowed us to continue to move at pace since our last Edition.

Whether it was the soft launch of our new betcha platform on 7 August (check out the hype reel), the further expansion of Trackside’s Freeview terrestrial coverage last week, or putting the finishing touches on trackside.co.nz which we will launch in early September as a new go-to digital hub for racing and punting content, these things are all unlocked through our keep it simple – keep it moving approach.

Will every idea work? Absolutely not. But you really do miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, and it’s been a joy to watch more and more of our stakeholders adopting a similar philosophy and coming to understand that now is the time to be bold and dream big.

Hope you enjoy this month’s edition. As always, you are welcome to share or forward this newsletter to anyone in the industry who you think might like to read this. They can sign up to receive the Entain Edition directly by contacting communications@entaingroup.co.nz. Likewise, if you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, please contact the same address.
Thanks for reading.

Cameron Rodger,
Managing Director – New Zealand
Entain Australia and New Zealand

Jumps racing turnover at a glance

The Grand National meeting is behind us for another year, and with about a month to go in the 2024 jumps season, it is a good opportunity to look at jumps racing across our key metrics.

Jumps turnover (up until 19 August this year) has continued to hover around similar levels to previous years. Turnover on hurdles and steeplechases has also stayed consistent when compared between turnover and total number of races – jumps turnover has been approximately 1.5% of total NZ thoroughbred racing turnover, while making up close to 3% of races on the calendar.

From a customer perspective, 41,000 of our customers have bet on a jumps race over the past 12 months, however less than 1000 of these 41,000 customers have jumps racing making up more than 10% of their total turnover.

I Wish I Win chasing redemption

The band is back together for this year’s edition of The Everest, the world’s richest race on turf. After going so close in last year’s edition of the A$20m slot race, it made perfect sense for Trackside Media to grab a slot and join up with I Wish I Win to have another go at winning the 1200m dash for cash.

With Moody Coleman Racing and Waikato Stud making up the team alongside “Wish”, we’re all set for October 19, particularly off the back of Wish’s winter form in Brisbane. Alongside this, we saw amazing growth in turnover in last year’s race, and the wheels are in motion for some other initiatives to continue the emergence of The Everest in the New Zealand punters’ consciousness.

Read more at entaingroup.co.nz and this hype reel will get you positively fizzing for The Everest.

Support extending beyond the track

As part of our commitment to the racing industry, Entain is proud to get behind two initiatives this month. We’re thrilled to have been confirmed as a Principal Equine Welfare Supporter of the New Zealand Horse Ambulance Trust. There are now nine purpose-designed ambulances nationwide, and a 10th is not far away. This will mean six horse ambulances are available in the North Island and four in the South. Horse ambulances attended almost 700 race meetings, trials, and events during the last racing season and play a critical role in the care and welfare of our equine athletes.

The racing industry’s true strength is its people, which is why we are supporting OnTrack, which launched its website earlier this month. OnTrack is a charity established to support everyone working and volunteering in our racing community, working together to improve mental health and prevent suicide. Please check out the information and resources at ontrack.org.nz.

We are proud to continue our tradition of supporting Daffodil Day at the Tarzino Trophy meeting at Hastings next week (September 7). As with previous years, the Daffodil Day silks will be assigned to a leading runner in each race and if the jockey in those silks returns at the head of the field, we’re contributing $2000 towards the Hawke’s Bay Cancer Society. That bumps up to $5000 for the big feature, the $400,000 Group 1 Tarzino Trophy.

This is a partnership we continue to cherish, and with cancer directly affecting 1 in 3 New Zealanders at some point in their lifetime, it’s a vitally important one as well.

We also got behind Harness Racing New Zealand’s Blue September campaign to raise awareness for prostate cancer, which went to a different level – or altitude – this year, with three leading drivers Blair Orange, Jonny Cox and Robbie Close – agreeing to sky dive if they reach up to $3000 in donations which they did on Monday. Check out this teaser and tune in to Friday Night Lights this week for the full story. This is the fourth year of HRNZ running a Blue September campaign, with $30,000 raised last season through driver sponsorship and donations from clubs and HRNZ. Find out more at hrnz.co.nz.

Rugs and straight tracks new greyhound innovations

It’s been a big month for greyhound racing with two key initiatives rolling out. The launch of the Whanganui Straight Track on June 17 was an important milestone for the greyhound code, and the reports after four meetings over the 313m distance are very promising. Meetings at the venue will settle into a fortnightly rhythm from this month on, providing punters with consistency for their betting.

We also joined forces with Greyhound Racing New Zealand to launch The TAB Dog promotion. From August 1, every greyhound drawn Box 3 in domestic greyhound races is wearing a specially-branded rug featuring the TAB logo and colours, and will be known as “The TAB Dog”.

Two greyhound race meetings a week will feature Bonus Back specials on The TAB Dog, with the concept simultaneously aimed at driving turnover and promoting the TAB brand.

Catwalk up in lights at the Sarten

We’re delighted to confirm that Catwalk has been chosen as Entain’s charity in NZTR’s Public Slot Auction for their slot in The NZB Kiwi. As part of the pre-auction process, Entain & Catwalk will be randomly allocated a runner in the Group 2 James and Annie Sarten Memorial at Te Rapa in late October, and if that runner wins, Catwalk will receive any proceeds above the auction reserve price for the slot. We are thrilled to be able to continue our support of Catwalk and look forward to cheering on our horse in the Sarten!

The World Pool and its importance

The World Pool is quickly becoming a key part of our global racing language, so we thought we’d share some more information about it. The World Pool sees money from multiple racing jurisdictions pooled together on certain bet types for certain races. Many of you will be familiar with commingling between New Zealand and Australia (where Kiwis and Aussies bet into the same tote pools), but with the World Pool, racing punters betting in Hong Kong or the UK for example, will be betting into the same market as us.

This has several benefits – not only does it mean greater pricing stability in these markets and the potential for larger payouts through exotic racing bets, but from our perspective, the World Pool also means enhanced exposure of feature races from this part of the world.

The World Pool was in action at the Stradbroke meeting at Eagle Farm in June and we’re exploring opportunities to bring the World Pool down to God’s Own. We get plenty of questions from punters and participants alike about the World Pool, and wanted to let you know that it is firmly on our radar.

News in brief:
– Following on from the inaugural Industry Excellence Awards late last month, we’ve been catching up with the category winners, as well as the supreme Entain Excellence Award winner, Cameron Ring. You can check out their stories by visiting entaingroup.co.nz/news and using the Categories filter to select Industry Excellence Awards stories.

– We share regular updates on LinkedIn around what’s happening in the world of Entain Australia & New Zealand. If you’re on LinkedIn, keep up to date by following us.

Entain team profile

Name: Pip Eriksen
Role: General Manager – Marketing (NZ)
Time with Entain: 15 months

What excites you about the strategic partnership?
This partnership has opened up countless opportunities to elevate our brands and engage a much broader audience, which we know is crucial for attracting new interest to the category.

It’s been fantastic to see the new TAB campaign performing above expectations and such positive feedback and engagement from customers. The launch of betcha is another key highlight — having recently wrapped up our campaign shoot, seeing our vision for this digitally led new challenger brand come to life has been a dream to be part of.

The partnership has also meant that I get to work with an amazing talented team across New Zealand and Australia – the collaboration, support and energy is so refreshing.

The race or event I’m most looking forward to?
Kiwi horse I Wish I Win racing at this year’s The Everest at Randwick.

Closer to home, having spent my childhood days at our local country club — sweeping floors and selling race books — it would be remiss of me not to mention the Kurow races on December 30 every year.

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