Jockey Club Unveils New ‘Jockey Club Services’ Venture

The Jockey Club today unveiled a new venture, Jockey Club Services, created to provide organisations in British sport with a range of business services in which it has particular expertise, scale and the ability to provide cost savings and quality results.

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 largest commercial group in Britain’s second biggest spectator sport has proven through a highly successful pilot phase its ability to provide sports organisations with significant economies of scale and tried-and-tested services that save its partners money and deliver effective results.

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 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.

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 percent 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.”

The Jockey Club each year stages some of the world’s most iconic sports events, including the Crabbie’s Grand National, the Cheltenham Festival and The Investec Derby; raised nearly £25m for capital development from British sport’s first retail bond last year; and has attracted more than half a million members for its highly successful Rewards4Racing customer loyalty scheme to date.

Shaun Harvey, Chief Executive of The Football League, saidL “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.”