Seven and Racing Victoria unveil Racing.com partnership

The Seven Network – a key business of Seven West Media, one of Australia’s leading integrated media and content creation companies – and Racing Victoria today confirmed plans for the launch of Racing.com, a new free to air television channel devoted daily to Victorian thoroughbred racing.

The new channel – Racing.com – is the only free to air channel on Australian television dedicated to broadcasting and promoting a single sport and will extend beyond broadcast television across all communication platforms to deliver horse racing to all Australians on any connected device.

The first day of Racing.com will be this Saturday with coverage of the Group 1 Memsie Stakes Day from Caulfield.

Bruce McAvaney will host this very first broadcast for Racing.com.

Racing.com today also confirmed CrownBet as its premium wagering partner for 2015 and 2016 and Ladbrokes as its Associate partner.

Details on Racing.com were announced today by Tim Worner, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Seven West Media, Lewis Martin, Managing Director of Channel Seven Melbourne, and David Moodie, Chairman of Racing Victoria.

Commenting, Mr Worner said: “This is an important new partnership for our company. We are the home of horse racing on broadcast television and we are committing our company to building an increasing presence for horse racing in Victoria across our expanding presence in all forms of content delivery. Our Racing.com partnership joins our portfolio of major sports and we are looking forward to working with Racing Victoria in ensuring the future growth and success of horse racing in this state.”

Building on its significant partnerships in horse racing television coverage, Seven is evolving an increasing presence in the sport as it advances plans for the delivery of a new content channel on its digital broadcast television platform.

The new joint venture – Racing.com – delivers a significant new platform for Seven and Racing Victoria as Seven continues to extend beyond broadcast television and publishing and expand its presence in the digital delivery of content and builds 1:1 direct engagement with its audiences.

Racing.com, which will broadcast race meetings from across Victoria 363 days a year, will provide the state’s thoroughbred racing industry with unprecedented and unrivalled free to air coverage.

The new partnership between Racing Victoria and the Seven Network to showcase Victorian thoroughbred racing nationally will also see the new, dedicated free-to-air channel integrated with a suite of streaming and digital services at Racing.com, where punters, fans and participants can view the broadcast on their mobile, tablet and desktop.

Channel Seven Melbourne Managing Director, Lewis Martin, said: “We are pleased to confirm that we have secured some terrific people for Racing.com and we are well-advanced in our plans to further expand our coverage of racing over the coming months. Channel Seven is looking forward to working closely with Racing.com in the promotion and marketing of this exciting new venture.”

The partnership today confirmed that joining the channel will be experienced and highly respected racing hosts Jason Richardson and Shane Anderson and astute form analysts David Gately and Warren Huntly as the key presenters on the new channel. They will combine with former AFL footballer and racehorse owner Campbell Brown and popular Hong Kong-based form analyst Clint Hutchison.

Chief Executive Officer of Racing.com, Scott Perrin, said: “This coming Saturday is day one. We have exciting plans for the evolution and development of this partnership over the coming 12 months. Victoria has the best racing product in the country and we are thrilled to be able to promote and grow it. This is the start of a new channel and we look forward to working to build our content over the coming months. We are also proud to have CrownBet as our premier partner and I want to thank CrownBet CEO Matt Tripp for his support of this ground-breaking free-to-air channel.”

Commenting, Mr Moodie said: “The launch of the free-to-air Racing.com channel achieves the goal of the Victorian thoroughbred racing industry to make our sport available to more people in more places than ever before. It is the start of a new era for Victorian thoroughbred racing and one that provides us with a foundation for growth in engagement, participation, ownership, wagering and attendance. Racing.com will showcase Victorian racing 363-days-a-year to well over 90 per cent of the Australian population. The industry’s partnership with Seven is a great result for racing fans, punters and participants and I would like to take this opportunity to thank our three Metropolitan Clubs and Country Racing Victoria for their support in achieving this.”

Chief Executive Officer of CrownBet, Matt Tripp, said: “We’re delighted that Racing Victoria and the Seven Network have chosen CrownBet as their premier wagering partner for Racing.com after a thorough and competitive tender process. This partnership will play an important role in CrownBet’s growth strategy and allow us to reach a wide audience right across Australia. It will help drive our mission to become the leading operator in the sector.”

The Racing.com channel will also feature three magazine programs as part of its initial content offering. Launching in early September will be the Thursday night preview show Get On and Sunday morning review show Correct Weight, whilst the weeks following will bring The Carnival, an entertaining and informative look at Victoria’s Spring Carnival. Racing.com will detail these new programs over the coming weeks.