Dickon White: developing relationships with the betting industry
Chris Pitt meets Jockey Club Racecourses’ Dickon White
Last September saw Haydock Park’s managing director Dickon White step into the newly created post of Group Betting Director for the Jockey Club.
There are plenty of responsibilities outlined on his ‘to do’ list, including generating the maximum return for the 15 tracks under the Jockey Club Racecourses (JCR) banner from its Totepool partnership with Betfred, while developing and maintaining relationships with the betting and gaming industries.
The reasoning behind the creation of this post was, he says, the realisation that there was an opportunity for the Jockey Club to work closer with the betting industry and develop the partnerships they already had in place.
“Those partnerships were done on an individual racecourse level and they were beneficial to both parties, but we believed there was an opportunity to develop them further and to look at a partnership approach across all of our racecourses. My responsibility is to oversee all of the relationships and partnerships that we have in place with individual betting companies.”
Paul Bittar’s arrival at the BHA last year and his stated objective for racing to formulate a non-confrontational approach with bookmakers signalled a marked improvement to what had long been an antagonistic relationship between the two sides. It was not, though, the catalyst that brought about the Jockey Club’s desire for a Group Betting Director.
“The two work hand in hand and almost complement each other,” says White, “and the BHA’s view that we should be working closer with the betting industry and having a sensible relationship is music to our ears because that’s reinforcing what we’re trying to do at a racecourse level.”
It’s still early days but steps have already been taken to fulfil the job criteria of developing and maintaining those relationships.
“Just having a daily dialogue with representatives from the organisations is important,” notes White. “From my Haydock days I’ve enjoyed a fantastic relationship with Betfred, in particular John Haddock and Steve Jones, having worked closely with them over a period of time. With Betfred purchasing the Tote it gives us an opportunity to develop that further.
“My personal view is that the Tote have under-invested in both racecourse facilities and customer service initiatives over the past eight to ten years. I realise that is because they were constantly ‘for sale’ but now that Betfred have taken ownership I think there’s a real opportunity and there are lots of initiatives on which we’d like to work with the team at Betfred to drive that forward.”
A pivotal function of his new role is creating mutually beneficial commercial opportunities with the betting industry. In this respect he has brought with him an impressive CV, having progressed from marketing and PR to commercial director at Aintree prior to becoming MD of Haydock Park in 2006. During that time he was responsible for achieving a number of high profile sponsorship deals, most notably recruiting John Smiths as Grand National sponsors.
That background, White feels, will assist him in his new role, though he’ll be taking nothing for granted in the current economic climate. He is aware that the days when a sponsor simply turned up, handed over the money and left the racecourse to get on with it, have gone forever.
With regard to generating the maximum return from JCR’s Totepool partnership with Betfred, he is in almost daily dialogue with both teams to drive this forward and hints that there are “some exciting initiatives” in the pipeline.
“The interesting thing is that both parties, Betfred and the Jockey Club, are working very closely together and that’s got to be good news. Whereas previously it would have been the racecourse doing one thing and the Tote doing another thing, this is a partnership approach.
“With my background with Fred (Done) and his team, I have an understanding of how they operate; they’re a very commercial organisation and I think they will bring new products to the table, which will be great news for racegoers.”
Another potential benefit for racegoers, is White’s desire to see a vibrant on-course betting market. He is already engaging with some of the key racecourse operators, even to the extent of spending a day on the rails working with a bookmaker in order to understand the challenges that they face.
“A healthy on-course betting market is very important and I see that as being a key part of the race day experience, making sure that there’s an opportunity to bet with a racecourse bookmaker but also that people are getting a good experience and good customer service.
“One thing it did reinforce during my day on the rails is that it’s a very tough, competitive marketplace out there. There are a lot of people not now coming racing because of the opportunities to bet at home, to bet online, and we’ve got to try and encourage people to come racing, to bet with the pool but also to bet with the on-course bookmakers.
“There’s a danger that we’ll just continue what we’ve been doing for the last 50 years. I think the on-course market needs to change; it needs to look at the type of customer who is coming racing and change its customer service practice to accommodate them.
“It’s about offering value and I think the on-course market does generally offer good value and a range of options for the customer. But I also think it’s unfair to the once a year racegoer who comes into the betting ring and walks up to a bookmaker who is offering one-sixth of the odds, whereas off-course they’d be getting a quarter of the odds. We get a lot of complaints from customers who don’t fully understand what they’re doing and just expect it to be done correctly and consistently. That is not a good way of encouraging people for repeat visits if they don’t feel they’re getting value when they come racing.
“We have made progress and I genuinely feel there are some fantastic on-course bookmakers who can add massive value to the race day experience, but there needs to be a consistent approach to ensure that our customers are getting the value they need.”
William Hill’s chief executive Ralph Topping has been fiercely critical of racing’s leadership, going so far as to say that he can envisage a time when his organisation has to make a decision “about whether racing needs to be covered live in betting shops with pictures”.
Though not directly involved on the political side, White understands Topping’s concerns but believes it is a matter of the two sides getting together and coming up with a sensible commercial partnership for the future of the sport.
“We believe – and I think the whole industry believes – that racing is very important to the betting market, but racing also agrees that betting is very important to us as well,” he says.
“I think it’s very interesting when you hear somebody like Paul Bittar – and (Jockey Club chief executive) Simon Bazalgette shares a similar view – saying that we need to be doing commercial deals with betting organisations.
“The five-year Betfair deal was positive for racing and was also seen as positive for Betfair, as their new chief executive Breon Corcoran publicly confirmed in his statement to the Stock Market in December.
“During my initial months in this role I’ve been really excited at the feedback I’m getting from very senior people in the industry who want to engage and work with us. It needs to be done as a partnership approach because that is the only way both can benefit.”
On the publicity side too, he believes it’s a matter of working together. Topping argues that bookmakers advertise the horse racing product more than anyone, and Paul Bittar has acknowledged that bookmakers are the sport’s shop window, but White does not underplay racing’s ability to sell itself.
“Ten years ago it wouldn’t have been a strength of the business but now we’ve got some brilliant marketing people, not only internally from within racing but also a lot of people who’ve come from outside racing with new ideas, new initiatives and they’ve shown what can be done with relatively low budgets.
“If you look at what Rod Street and his team are doing at REL Racing For Change, I think we’re now making the most of the opportunities that are given to us. For example, the Frankel opportunity; racing as a whole did a great job in promoting that. But I’m very aware that we need the betting industry to work with us on this, whether it’s in betting shop windows or social media outlets; we’ve got to work closely with them to ensure they are promoting the betting product. Whenever I pass a betting shop I always look in the window to see what they are promoting. Are they promoting the big race that Saturday or are they looking more at football fixtures that are happening midweek?”
He acknowledges that the turnover now being generated by FOBTs, online and mobile gaming has impacted on horse racing’s share of the cake, but doesn’t see it as a case of racing continually asking the bookmakers for more money, rather that it’s about increasing the value for both parties so that both sides benefit.
“I’m sure there are issues within betting companies that we need to address and part of my role is to try and understand how the Jockey Club, and how we as Jockey Club Racecourses, can support and help them. But it’s certainly not the case that racecourses are awash with money, and with Jockey Club Racecourses the whole business is about reinvesting back into the sport.
“I think there’s a danger that if we don’t invest in our facilities, the customer won’t come back and that’s not beneficial for anyone.
“Our agenda is to get people to come racing, hopefully to have a fantastic experience and go away being in love with the sport. From there they’ll then move on to engage in all of the betting opportunities and want to come racing again.”