A lot can happen within a short space of time amid the constant hustle and bustle of the gambling industry. This is particularly true when it comes to businesses that are looking to make waves within previously unoccupied jurisdictions.
However, that was the task facing Racing and Sports less than five years ago. The company, founded in 1999, made its maiden UK steps with a small team and significant ambitions. The payoff has seen a headcount grow fourfold, UK and European clients soar beyond 20 and revenue exceed £3m.
This also represented a key step in the company’s wider growth story, says Managing Director for UK/Europe, Jack Kelliher.
In conversation with SBC News, the newly promoted Kelliher looks at the impact of a number of organisational alterations, the effect that this will have on a worldwide basis, what the future could have in store and much more.
Racing and Sports has detailed a number of key leadership changes. What does this say about the current trajectory of the company?
It reflects the scale of what this business has become and the seriousness with which we are approaching the next stage of growth.
The UK and European operation now represents a significant portion of the overall Racing and Sports business. That is a significant part of a global company, and it demands the right business structure and the right investment in the people who have built it.
Brent moving into a senior global operations role is about far more than recognising what he has achieved in the UK. Brent brings vast experience of leading global operations from his time in this industry, and racing is a 365 day a year, 24 hours a day business and we must support this.
As we serve clients across more markets and more time zones heading into 2026 and 2027, having someone with that operational depth and that global mindset in the right position is genuinely important to our clients.
But what I am equally proud of is what that progression has created for the UK team. It has opened up opportunities for people who have genuinely earned them.
Andy Beckett moves into Head of Operations, and I think it is fair to say that Andy has worked with nearly every sportsbook in the UK on a racing product at some point, whether through his time at Podium or here at Racing and Sports.
That knowledge of how operators think and what they need on a day to day basis is invaluable. He understands the detail behind integrations, the demands of live product delivery and the standards our partners rightly expect.
Alex Ashton moves into a more senior operations role as we continue to take new clients live. Alex brings something equally important in a different way. Having come from the operator side at Sky Bet, he understands first hand what our clients are dealing with every single day. That perspective shapes how we operate and how we solve problems.
These are great outcomes for the business and for those individuals. It is a real credit to the impact they have had at Racing and Sports and the kind of culture we are trying to build.
This is hailed as an important step in the wider global growth story of RAS. Why will these moves prove to be of such critical importance?
Because the structure you have in place determines how well you can grow, and we are at a point where growth is very much the agenda.
When I look at where we have come from and where we are heading, the trajectory is clear. Our trading function has grown from two people to eight and that will grow further.
Our operations team has expanded as new clients have come on board. We have significant launches planned and a commercial push in Q3 and Q4 of this year that we are genuinely excited about. All of that requires the right structure around it, because momentum is fragile if the foundations are not right.
These appointments are about making sure the foundations match the ambition. We want to build on the trajectory we have established, continue growing our core functions and make sure that as we take on more clients and enter new markets, we are doing it with the right people leading those efforts.
Racing does not stop. It runs around the clock across dozens of jurisdictions and the operators we serve expect a level of service that reflects that. Having leadership in place that understands that environment, that has lived it and can operate within it at scale, is what allows us to grow without compromising on the things that have made us successful so far.
During your time at RAS, what would you identify as some of the major challenges that have been encountered and how were these overcome?
Credibility is always the first challenge. Getting a foothold in any market as a business operators have not previously worked with takes time. But the honest answer to how you overcome it is that it becomes a lot easier when you have the right team around you and the right products at your disposal.
Our team understand the complexities of the racing landscape in a way that genuinely makes a difference. We are able to help operators navigate what is an inherently complex space, guide them in the right direction, and then build on that knowledge sharing by delivering real business solutions.
That expertise is not incidental to what we do. It is central to it. And it helps enormously that when we walk into a room, our products stand up.
Our database is the largest in the world and it is entirely proprietary. That means we can build genuinely engaging racecard content and call to action features at the event creation stage that most competitors simply cannot replicate.
We then have agreements in place with all major rightsholders globally, which means we can deliver a complete racing product through one solution and one feed.
That reduces dependencies and removes complexity for integration teams in a way that operators immediately understand and appreciate.
And our trading solutions continue to go from strength to strength. The right people with the right products. That combination has put us in a very strong position, especially now that our brand awareness is growing across the UK, Europe and further afield.
We had a strong foundation from day one, given the success of our Australian business, but it is the UK proof points that have really started to move the dial.
I want to acknowledge the UK clients who backed our vision in the early stages. They took a chance on us before the brand was well known in this market, and that belief gave us the platform to demonstrate what we could do.
Now we have the data and the results to quantify what we always believed was true. Getting that first client is always the hardest part.
We have come a long way from that point, and we have genuinely exciting product development coming in the back end of 2026 and into 2027 that will push things further still.
What exactly will this next phase of growth look like across the UK and Europe?
We have some exciting operator launches planned later this year, which is exciting on two fronts. First, for the operators themselves and what we can deliver for them. But second, and equally importantly, each new launch builds upon the awareness and credibility we are developing in the marketplace as the go to provider of MTS services for racing.
It is also worth being clear about something that I think is genuinely one of our strengths. Our sole focus is on the racing and greyhound space. Every tool, every product, every piece of operational capability we have built is aligned to that.
We are not trying to be all things to all people. That focus is a competitive advantage. When I think about the next phase of growth, I see three clear revenue streams we want to develop in parallel.
The first is BetBridge. It is a single embedded component that gives sportsbooks a complete, full racing vertical in one integration. Every jurisdiction globally, 1,500 events going off daily, and a genuine route to fifteen percent plus GGR margin.
For operators who have been putting off adding racing because of the complexity and cost involved, BetBridge changes that conversation entirely.
Some of the most exciting opportunities we are seeing are with the new generation of marketing-first brands, particularly in the crypto and global market space.
These are businesses that are genuinely expert at acquiring and engaging customers. They know how to bring the audience. We know how to generate the GGR performance on 1000’s events daily.
The second is our MTS solution. I believe it is market leading right now, but we have a clear vision to stay in that position and continue to develop it. The industry is shifting towards outsourcing specialist services and we sit perfectly in that space.
The third is doing more with rightsholders around the world. Some of our best recent successes have come through working with racing bodies and rightsholders such as MTCJC and the HKJC, plus the close relationships we have with Australian Racing Authorities and Media Rights Holders.
The learnings from those relationships are transferable, and now that we are building a bigger presence and more credibility outside of the Southern Hemisphere, we are having some genuinely positive conversations in that space.
Latin America and Asia are key targets. Emerging territories where the demand for racing data is significant and we are well positioned to serve it.
What major ambitions do you have for RAS moving forward and how do you plan to achieve these?
The ambition is to be the number one racing data and trading provider in the world. That is the goal and I think we should be bold in saying it.
We have the foundations to achieve it. Our database is second to none globally and gives us the power to produce new products, new solutions and genuinely world class event creation options for brands.
And our trading capability is already delivering top class results for the brands we work with. We have recently signed off further investment in that space, which reflects exactly where our ambitions lie.
We want to be the number one trading partner for racing services globally, and we are backing that ambition with real commitment.
The way I think about it is this. If all racing providers were free tomorrow and operators could simply choose the best one available, I want Racing and Sports to be the obvious choice every single time. I believe we are well on that journey.
The way we achieve it is straightforward. We build world class products. We give operators the tools and the solutions to genuinely thrive and we listen !
We have no agenda beyond that. No hidden commercial interests, no pressure to take services they do not need. Just a genuine focus on building something so good that the choice becomes obvious. If we keep doing that, the growth story takes care of itself.