Stan James buys stake in US tote operator
UK bookie will inject much-needed marketing funds to drive European traffic to bet on US racing.
Stan James has acquired a majority stake in Racing2day, a US online horse racing wagering business set up last year by one of the founders of loss making Betinternet.com, now part of Webis Holdings.
Racing2day is licensed by the Oregon Racing Commission and offers pari-mutuel horse race wagering online and via its telebetting operation to 385 tracks in the US. Stan James has acquired a stake of just over 50%.
Vincent Caldwell, president of Racing2day, told eGR: “Stan James has a large database of customers who may be interested in betting on US racing. We want to integrate the two systems so that Stan James customers can directly bet on the US pools.”
“We’re not turning over huge numbers at the moment,” he continued. “Over the last two years we’ve put all the content together, put the website together. It’s taken more than two years since we started negotiations with [Kentucky-based racetrack] Churchill Downs to get their content. What’s needed now is to inject some marketing money, add customer service and customer support. That’s what Stan James is bringing.”
Caldwell said the company is hoping to turn over $25m in 2011 and plans to spend $1m in marketing over the next six months.
Racing2day went live in early 2009 and was founded by Caldwell, one of the founders of Isle of Man-based tote operator Betinternet.com, and developed by software solutions provider PDMS.
Denis Kelly, CEO of StanJames, said: “StanJames invests significantly in UK horse racing, and we are committed to continue our global investment in this exciting sport. We aim to boost the size of the pools by ultimately driving our European customers to the US Tote.”