Racecourse Media Group (RMG) has undertaken a restructuring of its business, merging two teams under the leadership of Ben Dowding as Chief Betting Officer.
Dowding was previously the horse racing media distributor’s Director of Betting. In his newly created position, he will head up the combined unit made up of the company’s former domestic and international betting teams.
The company has tasked Dowding with developing a ‘unified approach’ to the international racing market after noting its bookmaker clients shifting to a ‘global’ rights acquisition approach.
Dowding said: “I am delighted to have been asked to expand my responsibilities internationally. There are significant and exciting opportunities to enhance further both revenues and awareness for British and Irish racing via this new collaborative approach to the domestic and global betting markets.”
Dowding joined RMG from The Jockey Club in 2013 to lead RMG’s partnerships, and then B2B relationships, before becoming Director of Betting with a key focus on RMG’s domestic betting, streaming, and data business with bookmakers.
Notable achievements as Director of Betting saw Dowding oversee the move from a Bet-to-View model to a Watch-&-Bet turnover model that has driven a surge in performance and led to the introduction of real-time streaming in horse racing in partnership with STATS Perform and Phenix.
Furthermore, Dowding led RMG’s development of in-play pricing via Coursetrack’s GPS data alongside Pythia Sports and has represented RMG’s shareholding on the BoscaSports board, the Dublin-based retail betting technology specialists.
Nick Mills, CCO of RMG, remarked: “Ben has a huge amount of expertise in the sector and I wish him every success leading the team to capture new international opportunities.”
His task of spearheading RMG’s betting strategy comes at a significant time for horse racing – of which RMG is the primary distributor of media rights to bookmakers – due to the implications of the Gambling Act review.
Many stakeholders in the sport are concerned about the potential impact the proposed measures of affordability checks/finance risk checks may have on its financial stability.
