Bannister has been the Director of The Coniston Hotel, Country Estate and Spa in Skipton, North Yorkshire since 2012 and has previously worked for the financial regulation industry for FINRA (USA) and the Korean Financial Investment Association (KOFIA). Bannister made his name in the banking sector, spending 25 years at ABN AMRO, UBS and S.G Warburg. He has three sons, the eldest being professional Jump jockey Harry Bannister.
He said: “I’m delighted and honoured to be taking over the chairmanship of Haydock from Lord Daresbury. Racing faces many challenges as we move into a new decade and I am much looking forward to working with Dickon White, regional director north-west, and the rest of his executive team.”
Another move is the Former Arena Racing Company executive director of Newcastle and Doncaster racecourses Mark Spincer who is the new managing director at the company. Spincer has had 25 years of experience within hospitality and leisure and takes responsibility for the company’s 16 racecourses and four greyhound stadiums. Speaking about his new role, which commenced in January, Spincer expressed his excitement at the opportunity and expressed his belief that his previous experience in the development of the company’s catering and live music events would serve him well. He stated that “delivering fantastic events and excellent customer experiences have been at the heart of my ARC career and will continue to be the focus moving forward”.
Martin Cruddace, ARC Chief Executive, said of the appointment that the company was very pleased to confirm the appointment of Mark Spincer as Managing Director of ARC’s Racing Division and paid tribute to Spincer’s “considerable experience and expertise”. Adding that;
He has done an excellent job as Group Operations Director, with day to day management of our various sites, but we believe that this new role will be a significant benefit in building the business over the coming years. – Martin Cruddace, ARC Chief Executive
Arena Racing Company has been in both the sporting news and the gaming industry news lately due to the company’s desire to move away from a fixed-rate model for licensing trackside broadcasting. Previously a bookmaker would pay a fee, often a small amount, to allow racing action to be broadcast on their platforms.
However, ARC wanted to base rights to broadcast races to be calculated on a profit-sharing arrangement with the cost based on gross gambling yield. This would be a move that could cost the industry millions according to projections made by insiders. Bookmakers were urged to stand firm in the hope of a collective agreement by the industry but as the fear of losing out on streaming rights, one-by-one the bookmakers have agreed on terms with ARC.
Part of Spincer’s role could be to continue this growth of licensing agreements with bookmakers. Despite the industry seeing revenues falling for the first time to £552.06m, mainly driven by a drop in horse racing betting of 15.03%, ARC will be under pressure to maximise the value of this newly created opportunity.
So far William Hill, Unibet, Betfred, BoyleSports, Betway and BetVictor have all secured licensing deals with ARC. William Hill as part of the deal has started to broadcast a new free-to-air channel which shows top races including the William Hill St Leger at Doncaster and the Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter. It is available free-of-charge whether you are a William Hill customer or not.
