The Big Interview – George Primarolo

In an exclusive interview with Sportindustry.biz, George Primarolo, racecourse manager at the Tote, reveals that there is still no movement on the sale of the betting company, whether Cheltenham Festival was a success and how the Tote is looking to expand is sports sponsorship portfolio.

How successful has Cheltenham Festival been for the Tote?

It’s gone very well – off course betting has been excellent and we couldn’t have asked for better, all the favourites bar Big Bucks have been beaten so it has turned out very well.

But more importantly the turnover on-course has been very good – up around 10%-12% on each day from last year – easily exceeding our expectations.

How do you attract customers to bet with you over your many competitors?

You have to be competitive without giving too much away; the great thing about Cheltenham is that it’s a huge window for the betting industry because the public really get dragged into it as well as the normal punters.

So some of the promotions that we are running this week to attract these customers, are for example, to celebrate the launch of our new red uniform (previously lime green) we offered a free £2 bet to anyone who bet on the horse in the first race with a green jersey – this was done so that first time race-goers could spot Tote staff instantly and then hopefully return to bet throughout the festival.

We also offered price matches and money-back offers throughout the festival which has seen the increase in our on-course turnover.

The Tote has been sponsoring the Gold Cup since 1980, how do you aim to freshen up the race and generate more interest each year?

Well it depends on which horses are running and what you have to work with in that sense. We have been lucky in the last three years with two of the best steeple chasers in the last 30 years, so when you have got that and people want to talk about it the easier the marketing is.

Everyone talked about this year’s race on nearly every breakfast show in the country. So we gave away free Denman scarves and Kauto Star badges in a bid to add to the excitement and give that extra competitive edge that would attract more betting on the big race. We also had a ‘Battle-bus’ that went to all the meetings before hand and even went to Twickenham and Wembley to stir some interest.

So all-in-all how we promote the race year-to-year depends on the horses and sometimes the jockeys that we have got to work with.

But the great thing about the Gold Cup is that it almost sells itself because it is such a fantastic event on the sporting calendar.

There is no other sport really that people feel so passionately about that they come here for four days – it’s almost a pilgrimage.

So if Cheltenham Festival sells itself how do you aim to draw customers to, for example, a less glamorous, rainy Tuesday in Uttoxeter?

Well it is difficult but I think that the ‘Racing for Change’ week – where there will be one free days racing a day up and down the country – will help to generate more customers.
We are planning a number of marketing initiatives that week such as, the first 1,500 people through the door will be given a free £2 bet. There will also be discount betting booklets with money-off vouchers.

Another initiative will be information kiosks everywhere so that first-time punters will be able to find out how to bet, because we feel that this is something that could put people off racing – especially with our ‘pool betting’ as it can be seen as complicated.

So our aim is to make it is simple as possible and sort of de-mist betting because I can imagine that,  when you first set foot into a betting ring at a racecourse it can be a bit overwhelming.

We believe that we can attract more customers to the less popular events by doing this and I think that the ‘Racing for Change’ initiative will help boost attendances

In terms of the future of the Tote and the privatisation issues – are there any more updates?

As far as we are concerned it is in the hands of the DCMS (Department for Culture Media and Sport) and we get updates from them and at the moment it is business as usual.

We are currently half-way through a three-year business plan and we are sticking to that until we get told otherwise really. People ask about this but it is truly out of our hands – so as far as I’m aware there has been no initial updates since the prime minister made his announcement last year.

You have recently made sponsorship ties with Hull City, why did the Tote enter into football and are you looking to expand your presence in the game or indeed any other sports?

The opportunity arose and it was a good deal for the Tote because the Premier League is a global sport and is watched all over the world and our aim is to make Totesport.com into a global brand – so that was the thinking behind it.

We have good ties with Hull and East Yorkshire with plenty of shops there so locally it was also a good deal.

There is plenty of people betting on football now so in terms of brand positioning it was the perfect way to go.

In terms of expanding our sponsorship in football, well yes it could easily happen in the future. We are constantly looking for any deals to expand our presence any way we can – but currently we are very happy with the deal with Hull City.