The race-going public will be better informed and more engaged thanks to a commercial partnership between Eleven Sports Media and The Jockey Club.
In 2014, The Jockey Club launched the Racing Explained initiative after identifying links between an appreciation and understanding of racing as a sport – not just a day out – and people’s levels of enjoyment and likelihood of more frequent return visits, as well as other forms of engagement with the sport.
In early 2015, The Jockey Club approached Eleven Sports Media, as experts in fan engagement within sports venues, and asked how they could create a digital in-venue experience that would turn social ‘day out’ attendees into regular horse racing visitors.
Following these discussions, two of The Jockey Club’s flagship courses, Haydock Park and Sandown Park in the UK, have recently seen the installation of more than fifty 50″ LED screens, delivering Eleven’s fan engagement channel, StatZone.
The StatZone platform at The Jockey Club delivers race card information, live results and easily digestible snippets of racing terminology aimed at engaging with the less-experienced racing public.
The screens also allow The Jockey Club to showcase the branding of its partners and sponsors in key areas of the racecourses, including hospitality areas, bars and spaces open to the general public.
StatZone has been broadcasting live at both Haydock Park and Sandown Park since November and has already been well received at both venues. The partnership is set to continue through 2016.
James Tombs, group sponsorship manager of The Jockey Club said, “We’ve worked hard over the past 18 months to simultaneously educate and entertain those racegoers who enjoy the fantastic overall experience of a day at the races with The Jockey Club, but who may not be racing experts.
“By demystifying British racing as a thrilling sport we are helping those people to have an even better experience and, in turn, that helps toward more of them becoming loyal racegoers over time. The StatZone channel we have so far deployed at Haydock Park and Sandown Park has been playing an important role in this, delivering interesting information in a clear and concise manner that provides some great sporting talking points. The channel also allows us to offer some great advertising and branding opportunities to our sponsors and partners.”
Eleven Sports Media’s managing director, Matt Cairns, added, “We have been working hard together with The Jockey Club to deliver what is a complete transformation of the content experience within race venues, providing a more detailed, insightful and compelling narrative to the race day than ever before. To be able to launch this at two of British horse racing’s most iconic venues is thrilling for all those involved.
“We have had fantastic feedback from horse racing enthusiasts, new and old, from both Haydock Park and Sandown. We will continue to work with JCR to ensure the product continues to evolve and serves as the premium in-venue content platform across British horse racing.”
February 5, 2016
