Founded by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the current ruler of Dubai and an ardent horseracing fan with his own stables in the UK, the Racing Post launched in April 1986 as a direct competitor to The Sporting Life.
This venerable daily racing paper (founded in 1859) had been struggling under the ownership of media tycoon Robert Maxwell, and so the Gulf-backed Racing Post swept in and went on to establish itself as the premier print publication for dyed-in-the-wool horseracing and greyhound enthusiasts in the UK and Ireland.
In 1998, The Sporting Life was shuttered after nearly 140 years, following a merger of the business with the more successful Racing Post. This was the year after the digital version, RacingPost.com, launched, ushering in a new era and the capability to attract new eyeballs trained on desktop PCs.
Today, Spotlight Sports Group, as the business became known in 2020, still encompasses the flagship print and digital version of the Racing Post, but is supported by a portfolio of affiliate sites and B2B content services. As CEO Mark Renshaw tells EGR, its heritage means the brand commands “a real position of credibility and authority”.
EGR: You first joined the Racing Post as head of digital in 2008, but how would you say the product has evolved since 1986?
Mark Renshaw (MR): There’s been huge change. If you think back to when the business was founded 40 years ago, we were a newspaper, but with the advent of the web, apps and social media the business is fundamentally different today. From my point of view, there’s a huge opportunity for us to continue on that journey.
While we’re in a great place with great people and partners, we can build upon the foundations we have here for the future. Heritage is a fundamental strength, but we want to evolve this business into a real powerhouse authority around horseracing.
EGR: How can you better engage with and serve the younger generation of racing fans and those new to the sport?
MR: Over the last 40 years we have put all our efforts into customers who are already engaged with the sport. We made a conscious decision a few months ago to think more about still doing that but also consider new customers. That means a fundamentally different mindset from us. It’s thinking about what the 20-year-olds to early 30-year-olds really want from racing, so that means having the right people in the business who are lot younger me and in tune with those younger people.
Second, it’s about investing in video content and, three, it’s thinking much more about social media. If you look at our business in a year’s time, you’ll see we’ve done more to engage existing customers, but for new customers we’ll be taking a very different approach […] it needs to be laser-focused because it cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach.
EGR: Stats released on Spotlight Sports Group’s LinkedIn account revealed the Racing Post’s YouTube channel recorded a 41% year-on-year increase in views to 4.4 million in 2025, while YouTube Shorts surged 1,000% to one million. How important is YouTube?
MR: It’s big but we’re looking at multi-channel from a social perspective. It depends on the age profile, whether it’s TikTok, YouTube or Instagram. We’ll be servicing these three platforms in a responsible way, but YouTube is important and a big chunk of our existing audience. Those numbers are great, though I would [expect to] see a lot more growth in the next year or two, with a big part of our growth coming through video – YouTube yes, but also Instagram and TikTok.
EGR: Is this mainly betting previews?
MR: Previews will be a big part of it, as it’s our heritage. But in the middle of February, we’re launching a slightly higher-end series of videos on a weekly basis looking behind the scenes at racing and its participants. So, what it really means to be involved in racing – a lot of people see it superficially through their TVs. Fundamentally, it’s about targeting the needs of whichever customer we want to go after.
Tipping and betting are a big part of what we do, but we see opportunities across the spectrum. This differentiates us from a lot of other businesses in this space that are affiliate or preview-focused; we are much broader than that and can cover a wider range of opportunities.
EGR: The Upping The Ante video series with the Racing Post’s David Jennings and pro punter and ex-bookmaker Johnny Dineen seems to have gained a loyal audience.
MR: Yes, Upping The Ante is sort of a flagship show, and its numbers are off the charts. We are getting 100,000 views, when this time last year we were getting 30 or 40 [thousand]. Johnny and DJ are a great double act. The quality of the video is important, but it’s also about chemistry and engagement.
The talent is so fundamental. We’ve seen that with Johnny and DJ as it’s by far our most popular show. The world has evolved. Yes, people want to see the form, they want to see previews, but they are increasingly living and breathing on some sort of social channel. So, the amount of video we are going to create for variety of customers will be huge.
EGR: What’s Spotlight Sports Group’s ‘Racing Innovation Blueprint For 2026’?
MR: A big focus is how we become more audience-led across all areas of the business. A big shift is a focus on what our customers and our partners want. Evolving out of that, the ‘Racing Innovation Blueprint’ is about how we serve the needs of racing customers – both those who have been engaging with racing for the last 10, 20, 30 years and, more importantly, those who are new to racing.
It’s about how we understand their needs and drive innovation that deeply engages those customers. That innovation, through [simplified racecard info and design] Smart View and other elements, is about how we make this more accessible, really clear and something that’s absolutely right for the future, rather than what was right for the past five or 10 years. For me, that’s a big opportunity.
EGR: How do Spotlight Sports Group’s B2C and B2B operations increasingly work in tandem?
MR: When we think about truly understanding customers, they can be our customers or the customers of our partners. Having real insight and data means we can create products and propositions that are relevant for them. It’s about coming together to think about the best way of distributing it to our own customers and third parties.
EGR. Horseracing continues to face financial pressures, compounded by bookmakers having to tighten their belts because of upcoming hikes to remote gaming and remote betting duties. How can you best support racing in this period?
MR: We want to help people present racing in the most efficient and desirable ways. We’re going to invest, and while that benefits us to some degree, we want to grow the pie. We’re doing that in a number of ways, such as the [media] partnership with an ARC [Arena Racing Company] and Invades [a pioneer of student trips to racecourses] around Friday Night Live.
We’re investing in social and video around engaging those audiences, which I really hope will benefit the sport. We want racing to be healthy and flourish – we sponsor races and are a big supporter of racecourses. And it’s about creating products for our partners that are efficient and engaging.
EGR: British racing is an increasingly expensive betting product for bookmakers, while fans of the sport complain about a bloated fixture list with too much low-grade action and that prize money is inadequate, which is why some owners send their horses overseas instead. Are you still positive about the sport’s future in Britain despite all this?
MR: You won’t be surprised to hear I’m genuinely positive. But it would be wrong to say there are no headwinds. I’m not going to sit here naively, but my fundamental view is the foundations of the sport are very solid. It’s a sport that has a lot of heritage and a lot of positive points. I think you can see that in the past six to 12 months in the number of younger people coming racing through Invades and others.
They are not being forced to go. I was at Champions Day at Ascot [in October] and half the crowd was under the age of 30. They were there for slightly different reasons, but I think the sport has great foundations […] I can see green shoots, and I think us and few others are well placed to make a big difference.
EGR: Do you expect a meaningful level of bookmaker racing sponsorship deals to end, though, in a similar fashion to Coral recently dropping its sponsorship of the Coral Cup at the Cheltenham Festival after more than three decades?
MR: Every operator is reassessing how they’re thinking about their marketing budgets and their futures given the recent tax increases. It’s for them and the racecourses to discuss, but we and the sport need to make sure we offer a proposition that can make a difference.
My view around our business and why I’m bullish is because if we can offer really valuable content and do things customers and bookmakers want, then we can still win in the market. But I think it requires everyone to sharpen up […] from what I hear from bookmakers, they all still want to be involved in horseracing. They need to cut their cloth, but the onus is on racing and us as a media business to make sure we are really offering them true value.
EGR: Stepping away from racing, how big a deal is this summer’s World Cup for the business?
MR: It’s always big. Whenever we have big sporting events like the World Cup and the Euros, we see a boost […] the World Cup is pretty much the biggest sporting event in the world. It’s the biggest betting event by miles.
EGR: Do you expect the time difference and expansion from 32 to 48 teams to impact customer behaviour? Is there a danger reduced jeopardy in the group stages this time around and clashes between lowly ranked sides could be a turn-off for armchair fans?
MR: It’s an interesting one. I think the time difference will be a little bit of a factor. As to your other points, I think the big matches will be huge, not just the knockouts but where the big teams are playing [in the group stages]. Perhaps there will be a little bit of a lull around some of the smaller teams in the early stages, but it’ll be huge [overall].
It doesn’t matter about time zones; once you get into the knockout stages people will do whatever they need to do to be watching it, even if it means having very little sleep. Scotland being there is big from a UK perspective. England is always huge. Talk to the bookmakers and the level of interest in England matches at a World Cup is off the charts.
EGR: Finally, how big a milestone is 40 years for the Racing Post and how do you plan to mark the achievement?
MR: Obviously, 40 years is a long period of time. We’ve got a real position of credibility and authority, though what I’m focused on now is how this business grows and thrives over the next 40 years. But I think the 40-year history gives us the confidence to stride forward with purpose. In a world that’s moving fast, having that credibility is important, but we definitely don’t want to just lean back on that.
How will be celebrate 40 years? One, we’ll have a series of features [in the Racing Post and online] around the heritage. Second, we’ll celebrate with some of our partners and, third, we’ll have parties internally with our colleagues to toast the big landmark.
Earlier this week, Sam Houlding, Spotlight Sports Group’s B2B managing director, outlined how to make horseracing a truly global sport
The post Spotlight Sports Group CEO: British racing’s foundations “very solid” for future growth first appeared on EGR Intel.
Ahead of the Racing Post marking its 40th anniversary in 2026, Mark Renshaw discusses how the product caters to both form judges and Gen Z racegoers new to the sport
The post Spotlight Sports Group CEO: British racing’s foundations “very solid” for future growth first appeared on EGR Intel.