RTÉ Sport has signed a €1 million deal with Boylesports for the bookmaker to become the official partner of the station’s television, radio and online coverage of racing over the next two years.
The deal cements the position of the Dundalk based and privately owned company as the largest single commercial brand around the sport.
Grand National
Boylesports became the sponsor of the iconic Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse for the first time this year and scored a major win when it’s own race ambassador Barry Geraghty, pictured above at yesterday’s announcement, rode the winner.
The company has since confirmed a longer term deal around the race and is also the sponsor of the Irish Greyhound Derby. Those two events alone position the brand as central to two of the countries most valuable racing events and the deal with RTÉ sport will extend their ability to make the most of renewed growth in the sport of horse racing in particular.
The recent success of the inaugural Irish Champions’ Weekend saw €3.75 million in prize money and new sponsorships from brands with serious global reach in John Deere, Jaguar and Quipco.
24 Days
The two days of that event in 2015 will be two of 24 days live racing broadcast on RTÉ sport over the course of the year. Other highlights include the Cheltenham, Punchestown and Aintree festivals in the spring, the Boylesports Irish Grand National in April and the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby in high summer.
“Irish racing remains on terrestrial free-to-air television and Boylesports has secured a powerful association with Irish Racing across all of RTÉ’s market-leading platforms,” said RTÉ Sport Commercial Manager Dermot Rigley.
“Offering cut-through across all platforms under one brand is RTÉ’s unique offering to the market.”
Endorsement
“This partnership is a great endorsement of RTÉ Sport’s output and our powerful audience reach and we’re delighted to welcome Boylesports on board.”
One of the most interesting elements of the deal will be the way in which the two seek to exploit the growing interdependence between live TV sport and online betting. All of RTE’s racing coverage is simulcast live on rte.ie and it is expected that there will be direct links between the coverage and easy to navigate betting opportunities for those who are account holders and logged in at the time.
General links may though present problems of appearance in relation to the attraction of betting to minors and the incidence and concern over problem gambling as an issue.
The deal caps a fine year for RTÉ sport who secured first time partner Hyundai around it’s extensive coverage of the FIFA World Cup in the summer.
The news we carry today about the NBA’s astonishing $24 Billion TV rights deal in the US shows the still rapidly increasing value of combining live TV with live sport. There is quite literally no other show in town that comes close.
