Racing Post
| Type | Publisher |
|---|---|
| Owner(s) | Exponent Private Equity |
| Founder(s) | Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum |
| Founded | April 1986 |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters |
London, England, United Kingdom |
| ISSN | 0968-3364 |
| Website | www.racingpost.com |
Racing Post is a British daily horse racing, greyhound racing and sports betting newspaper, appearing in print form and online.
History
Launched on April 15, 1986, the Racing Post is a daily national print and digital publisher dedicated to the horseracing industry and horse racing, greyhound racing and sports betting. The paper was founded by UAE prime minister and Emir of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, a prominent racehorse owner, and edited by Graham Rock, who was replaced by Michael Harris in 1988. In 1998 Sheikh Mohammed sold the licence for the paper to Trinity Mirror, owners of The Sporting Life, for £1 - Sheikh Mohammed still retains ownership of the paper’s name, and at the sheikh’s suggestion, Trinity Mirror donated £10 million to four horseracing charities as a condition of the transfer.
In 2007 Trinity Mirror sold the paper for £170m to FL Partners, who appointed former editor Alan Byrne as editor-in-chief and chief executive. Byrne edited the paper from 1993 to 2002. He was succeeded by Chris Smith, with current editor Bruce Millington appointed in 2007. The business was sold to Exponent Private Equity in September 2016, Richard Segal was appointed chairman.
The paper launched its website, racingpost.co.uk, in 1997 - after the paper’s sale to FL Partners the site was relaunched as racingpost.com in 2008.[1]
Content & Features
The Racing Post blends breaking news in the horseracing and betting industries with tipping content, race previews and reports, columns and features. In addition to daily editorial, the newspaper includes cards and form for each day’s racing, plus entries and results. The paper’s greyhound section previews upcoming racing in addition to offering cards, form and results, while the sports section offers tipping across an extensive range of sports worldwide, including football, rugby and golf.
The Racing Post mobile app includes cards, form, results and expert tips.[2] Users can place a bet through the app and betting partners include Coral, Ladbrokes, William Hill and Paddy Power. The Bet to View facility allows users to watch a race if they have placed a bet of £1 or more and the Predictor option gives users an animated depiction of which order the horses will finish in. The Racing Post also send push notifications regarding breaking news and betting updates to mobile app users.
The Racing Post iPad Daily Edition offers users the chance to view the newspaper content before the newspaper itself is available. The iPad edition is available from 8pm each evening and includes all the news, features and racecards which will be included in the following day’s paper.
'Accolades
Racing Post was highly commended for the Grand Prix award at the Newsawards 2016. The judges commented: “This was a tremendous example of adapting the business model in an increasingly online world. The Racing Post's multi-platform offering of print, app and pocket guides was evidence that the Racing Post had grabbed the digital revenue streams by the horns and made a huge success through diversifying. It has used its spin-off products and partnerships to extend its reach”
Alastair Down won the specialist writer category at the Sports Journalists’ Association Awards 2016. Edward Whitaker has won the SJA Sports Photographer of the Year on two occasions, in 2008 and 2011.
Steve Palmer has won the SJA Sports Betting Writer of the Year on two occasions, in 2008 and 2009.
Whitaker also won Photographer of the Year at the 2012 Horserace Writers and Photographers Association Derby Awards for a fifth time.
Alastair Down holds the record of four wins in the racing writer of the year category at the annual Horserace Writers and Photographers Association Derby Awards, most recently in 2015.
Also in 2015 Graham Dench won racing reporter of the year and Patrick McCann won picture of the year while Lee Mottershead was named journalist of the year in 2011 and Jon Lees was awarded racing reporter of the year in 2013.
At the 2013 British Media Awards, the Racing Post’s mobile app was named Digital Product of the Year and the iPad Daily Edition won the Launch of the Year prize. The iPad app won Newspaper App of the Year at the 2013 Newspaper Awards and the mobile app was named Digital Innovation of the Year at the same event.
Specialist coverage
Weekender
A weekly betting newspaper which is released every Wednesday. It is designed to look at the best bets for British & Irish racing for the week ahead, with a particular focus on the biggest betting races of the weekend. Regular tipsters/contributors include Alistair Whitehouse-Jones, Simon Holt, Tom Segal (Pricewise) and Malcolm Heyhoe.
RPSunday
A weekly supplement which is free in every Sunday edition. It contains:
- The Big Read - an exclusive in-depth interview with a key industry figure
- Q+A with another notable individual
- Story of the horse looks back over the careers of popular horses
- On Location goes behind the scenes of various racecourses, stables and other racing-related places.
- Sports Crossword featuring horse racing and general sport
Racing & Football Outlook
A weekly betting newspaper looking at the best bets for the midweek and weekend action in both football and racing.
Racing Post TV
RPTV is the audio-visual arm of the Racing Post, providing a range of videos and Postcasts for racing fans. RPTV have their own Twitter feed with more than 7,500 followers and there is also a Racing Post YouTube channel featuring tipsters and video form.
Soccerbase
The Racing Post's football betting website Soccerbase is designed to provide football punters with the essential tools to assist their bets on football from leagues across the UK and also around the world. Users are able to place bets through the site. The website features aspects such as in-play statistics, detailed league tables and historical head-to-heads as part of its overall package.
Irish Racing Post
The Irish version of the Racing Post also comes out on a daily basis and features many of the most popular columnists/tipsters from the UK version, but also puts Irish horse racing at the forefront of its coverage. It features regular contributions from Irish-based columnists and has a slightly different front page than its UK counterpart.
Social Media
Social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are all covered by the Racing Post. The Facebook and Twitter pages are designed to provide a mixture of industry news, product updates and ‘lighter’ content for racing fans, including quizzes, videos and competitions. The Facebook page currently has over 150,000 total Page Likes and the Twitter feed has more than 185,000 followers. The Racing Post Instagram page has over 25,000 followers and features a mixture of pictures from award-winning Racing Post photographers.
People
Star writers and columnists include:
- Willie Mullins
- Sam Twiston-Davies
- Lee Mottershead
- Bruce Millington
- Richard Hughes
- Richard Hoiles
- Steve Palmer
- Kevin Pullein
- Richard Forristal
- Tom Kerr
- Alastair Down
- Peter Thomas
- Steve Dennis