Horse racing's biggest week begins here with more than 200,000 racing fans to come down on Cheltenham racecourse this week. And with Constitution Hill tipped as a punters' preferred, this year's festival will no doubt be action packed.
Ahead of the four-day event, we overtook FSB's Head of Trading Risk Kyle Brady about why the Cheltenham Festival is such an essential week for the award winning sportsbook provider and how it will showcase its racing heritage throughout its platform.
SBC: The 2023 Cheltenham Festival is on the horizon. Why is this such a big week for FSB?
KB: We're an award winning UK-based supplier so the Cheltenham Festival has always been one of our heritage sportsbook events. To show that, all 28 races from last year's Festival made our Top 30 horse races of 2022 by bet number volume.
Taking a broader view, horse racing normally is at the heart of our sportsbook offering which's shown in the tools we provide operators, regard we have in the market for this product and the depth of our racing-focussed partner portfolio.
We have actually attained this by not cutting corners. We've built our in-house racing prices design and supplemented that by getting premium information on the sport that permits our expert trading group to produce strong daily margins for our partners.
If you look at the operator platform partnerships we have actually gathered in the last decade then our know-how rings real. Arguably there's no more dedicated racing bookmaker than Fitzdares in the UK, our partner for 6 years across two worldwide regions.
We launched Bet Goodwin 14 months back on our platform and they've turned into one of the fastest growing UK bookies after delivering an actually strong racing brand name concentrated on sponsorships, collaborations and naturally a great item. So we have a winning performance history in horse racing across our platform and our partners, and the Cheltenham Festival permits us to display our offering and show our abilities.
SBC: You pointed out experience within the racing trading group. Tell us more about that and your own journey personally.
KB: Our racing trading group is an extremely close-knit operation, the heart of the team have actually been working together for a decade and work intuitively together for the benefit of our partners
We truly comprehend racing and we're a match for any Tier 1 operator when it concerns management of trading and risk.
Before FSB, a variety of us worked operator side and it's fair to say we're all enthusiastic punters also so we include the full industry ecosystem when it comes to racing understanding.
With regard to my own experience, I have actually remained in this industry for over 20 years. I spent 17 of those years dealing with Sky Bet playing an essential role in establishing their core horse racing method at an offering and danger management level.
I likewise had a successful spell at the Press Association managing the globalisation of their horse racing information service. Now though It's excellent to be part of a team at FSB that has so much know-how within its arsenal.
SBC: Outside of knowledge, what else does your team and platform offer operators who desire to make horse racing a core sport within their offering?
KB: Internally, our marketing team yaps about the four C's. Choice, control, cooperation which leads to curation.
From an option perspective, operator partners can take our managed trading and risk management service or they can trade separately or work with us on a hybrid technique.
The same chooses content. They can take our handled service plan or look to include other feeds and integrations into their offering.
In terms of control, this is where our platform excels. Operators can structure their technique in trading across cost, limitations and risk via our game changing tools. Having this control permits them to play a substantial part in margin efficiency across racing and other sports.
Then when you add in the specialist cooperation that our group uses, what you find is that partners have the ability to curate the accurate horse racing using they need for their gamers and their market. This is really about close co-operation and empowerment
SBC: A little birdie tells me you were really sweet on Constitution Hill's possibilities last year at the Cheltenham Festival. Have you got any suggestions for us this year?
KB: You're very kind! In 2015 worked out. I have not got anything to match Constitution Hill this time round but I do think Luccia will go well in the Mares Novice Hurdle on Thursday. Edwardstone must follow up his Arkle win last year with Champion Chase magnificence on Wednesday.
He's had an unlucky season to be honest after his Tingle Creek win with an early fall in the Desert Orchid and then did everything incorrect in the Clarence House in January however was just narrowly ejected by an outstanding ride.
At a bigger price I 'd nominate Happygolucky in the Ultima on Tuesday. He was second in the race in 2021 and ran a stormer in the Rehearsal Chase in December behind the skilled L'Homme Presse. I'm anticipating a big run here and in the Grand National next month.
