Delivering new revenue and engagement for racing

By Will Duff Gordon, TPD CEO


TPD’s recent announcement that we have sent £100,000 to ARC’s media rights partner (ATR) and expect to share more than 5x that figure by this time next year is a watershed announcement for racing and the culmination of many years of needle threading.

I left the Racehorse Owners Association board and my Fin Tech business in 2015 to create a racing data business that created wholly new revenue and engagement for racing. For years I had heard racing’s stakeholders argue about how to move around existing money so the task was to grow the pie not to argue over the slices.

Ascot were our first racecourse partner to receive a TPD cheque in 2020. Their Finance Director joked that it has been many years since he’s had to enter a brand new category into their accounts receivable column! Their big screen shows the full running order and split times at every fixture to enhance the oncourse experience.

Where does TPD’s income come from? Funding from the Levy Board sped up our UK installations from 8 to 24 tracks but is only 7% of our UK revenue. Approximately 40% of our sales come from North America. We make the majority of the revenue by providing data or products to bookmakers, TV broadcasters, punters and form websites.

Rugby players and most professional players wear a tracking sensor during their training and matches. We are doing the same for horses with the added advantage of being able to share all of the data on speed, stride and position in real time.

Technology advances rapidly and this means that taking sectional times is now just one of the myriad uses for the content.

The goal has always been to the lift the lid on how the mighty thoroughbred unleashes their power and we are grateful to our global racecourse partners for the opportunity to help tell this story while also generating new types of betting and revenue for the industry.