The Aintree Festival, and with it the Grand National, is just about to kick off. 

After the conclusion of the Cheltenham Festival just weeks ago, it seems that horse racing has been constantly in the spotlight, be it for negative or positive reasons, and now, the headline event of the calendar for some is fast approaching. 

Horse racing and betting are both right under huge regulatory pressure, but there is still serious optimism for arguably the biggest UK race in the sport this Saturday. 

With the festival kicking off today, Ben Cullen, Head of Risk at Midnite, spoke to SBC News’ Bookies Corner about the growing UK operator’s plans for Aintree – and ‘the race which captures a nation’. 

Are there any marketing/promotional strategies that you have planned centred around the Aintree Festival and Grand National?

Our marketing strategy for the Aintree Festival and Grand National will remain broadly consistent with our wider approach, with a clear focus on both acquisition and retention.

Across the first two days of the Festival, we will lead with strong, headline Bet & Get offers, supported by an Extra Place strategy and a series of Super Boosts. These mechanics are designed not only to attract new customers but also to drive ongoing engagement throughout the week.

For Grand National Day itself, our approach will be more measured. While we will still offer an Extra Place promotion on the feature race, we will avoid running Bet & Get offers or overly aggressive promotions. This reflects the nature of the event, where a large proportion of customers are typically once-a-year bettors who engage specifically for the Grand National but do not consistently return to the sportsbook. 

As such, we are mindful of balancing competitiveness with promotional efficiency, rather than over-indexing on generosity in this space.

What is it about Aintree – and the Grand National in particular – that sets it apart from other events over the year?

The Grand National is a unique event within racing. For three days, Aintree captures the nation. People who haven’t placed a bet all year are suddenly studying form, picking a horse, and hoping to land a big winner. 

The race itself is the ultimate test with 34 runners, 30 fences, four miles of drama. That unpredictability is what makes it special, and frankly, it’s what makes it so compelling from a betting perspective too. 

How much of a focus is horse racing for your brand given the difficulties the sport has encountered in recent times? Has it become less of a priority at all?

Horse racing is still very much at the forefront of what we do at Midnite and we’ve assigned a lot of resources to improving the product we present to customers over the last 18 months. Our customers still love to bet on horse racing, especially around the big events and we don’t see that changing anytime soon. 

Does the Grand National still attract the punters? Would you still say that it is the biggest horse race of the year for your business?

It’s certainly the biggest race of the year still, attracting both seasoned punters along with the customers where this may be their only bet of the year. This race is often a family affair, with everyone getting involved and watching the race unfold together.  

What trading movement have you seen in the run up to the festival? Are punters backing anyone in particular?

It’s still a bit early to answer that question as 95% of our business will come on the day of the race rather than being present now. What I can say is historically we do see money going down on horses that have either done well at Cheltenham or in this race previously, so we can expect to need horses like I Am Maximus to be beaten! 

Have any trading trends continued from Cheltenham? Are punters expecting any repeat performances?

As mentioned previously, I think I Am Maximus is going to be a big favorite with the punters and I expect it to shorten towards post time. Over the last few years we’ve seen some decent sized gambles, so it’s just staying on top of them and making sure we manage our risk accordingly.

There have been some interesting stats revealed about last year’s Aintree Festival, with only a small number of winners at the Cheltenham Festival also winning at Aintree. Are punters backing Cheltenham winners or has there been interest in horses that are more fresh?

Most of the money lands on the day of the event so it’s a bit early to be seeing much yet, however we always see trends between horses that did well at Cheltenham, that are running again at Aintree. Cheltenham winners are still fresh in punters’ minds and with the short time between the meetings, there’s no reason for punters to believe they can’t do it again.

What kind of measures can you implement to make sure that punters stick around post-Aintree?

We’ll follow normal practices that are part of how we treat every customer. Offering customers a great experience, ease of access, quick withdrawals, fast settlements and delivering on what we’ve said we’ll do. 

Having one of the widest content schedules across the industry also helps, so customers have plenty of racing to get stuck into after the festival is over.