Jockey Club To Offer Business Services
The Jockey Club is set to offer out its expertise after launching its latest venture, Jockey Club Services, created to provide organisations in British sport with a range of business services – with The Football League, Glamorgan CCC and Lancashire CCC named amongst its first partners.
Through the new brand, the UK racecourse operator will now offer its services in which it has particular expertise, scale and the ability to provide cost savings and quality results to external parties.
Last year the organisation launched another venture, Jockey Club Live, which has since staged live music after racing for more than 300,000 people in its first year of operation.
Jockey Club Services offers the sports industry outsourced business services including procurement, ticketing, loyalty, finance and accounting, HR, IT, customer-related marketing, payroll, stadium Wi-Fi, live music booking and production, and consultancy around areas such as capital infrastructure, turf management, catering and retail bonds.
The launch follows a successful pilot phase of the venture.
Jockey Club Services has been working with several first-class cricket counties – including the provision of procurement services to Hampshire and Kent, ticketing for Glamorgan and the development of a loyalty programme for seven first-class county sides.
The Football League has also formally partnered with Jockey Club Services to provide procurement services to its member clubs, with basic agreements now in place with 11 clubs across all three leagues.
Shaun Harvey, chief executive of The Football League, commented: ‘With 72 clubs across England and Wales, The Football League has considerable buying power when clubs work together. We’re delighted to be partnering with Jockey Club Services to ensure that by joining forces, clubs in The Football League can get the very best prices for all the day-to-day essentials that any business needs.’
In racing, The Jockey Club provides HR services for Racecourse Media Group and finance and accounting services for British Champions Series Limited, now under its Jockey Club Services banner.
Paul Fisher, group managing director of Jockey Club Racecourses and Jockey Club Services, said: ‘Business services aren’t the glamorous end of sport, but they’re a vital part of the engine room of any sport business. Jockey Club Services can deliver first-class results, save many organisations money and provide insights based on our experiences that may be of real benefit.’
‘For example, with the buying power of 15 racecourses within The Jockey Club group, our procurement pilot has so far generated savings of up to 40% for the participating clubs. We’re delighted with that and as we want these relationships to be really sustainable our fees will remain limited to ensure plenty of upside for our partners to keep working with us.’
Founded in 1750, The Jockey Club is governed by Royal Charter to act for the long-term good of British racing in all that it does. Therefore the additional income it generates through Jockey Club Services will be invested in the sport.
