Racing and Sports (RAS) has secured a five-year extension to its contract with Entain, as it continues to provide racing content to the firm’s Australian businesses. 

The deal will see the FTSE100-listed global betting and gaming group utilise RAS’ throughout racing content across its Ladbrokes, Neds, Betstar and Bookmaker brands Australia. 

This will include coverage from ‘major racing jurisdictions’ and international greyhound meetings, along with analytic data, live feeds and RAS’ Global Ratings framework – the latter leveraged by Entain’s trading divisions for mathematical modelling and pricing feeds.

Dean Shannon, Entain Australia CEO, remarked: “Racing and Sports have proven a reliable and consistent provider of high-quality data and live feeds and it makes complete sense to take our commercial partnership to another level.

“Entain Australia prides itself on being customer centric and it is crucial we provide the best, most accurate and up-to-date information, displayed in an easily accessible format. 

“Racing and Sports have a strong heritage in this space, but importantly they are always looking to innovate and enhance their offering, which mirrors the mindset of Entain.” 

The expanded arrangement with Entain follows ‘significant partnerships’ secured by RAS’ in the rapidly growing US sports betting market, such as deals clinched with the likes of Sky Racing and XB Net.

Additionally, the Canberra-based sports data and media provider has also bolstered its presence in the UK betting and racing space, notably entering into a partnership with the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) in April of this year.

Commenting on the RAS’ collaboration with Entain Australia, Stephen Crispe, group CEO, said: “Over the years, Racing and Sports have independently collated historical data from all corners of the world and we are now finding this data is useful for the traditional bettor but can also be visually presented for the new or casual bettor and we pride ourselves on listening and meeting the needs of our customers.

“We are thrilled to have secured this long-term agreement with Entain Australia. It is apparent there is an appetite to present data, whether it be thoroughbred, harness or greyhounds, in a more innovative way, while not forgetting those enthusiasts who enjoy studying form on all three codes in a more traditional way.”

Discussing the group’s global expansion with SBC News last month, Crispe disclosed that the UK and Europe, as well as emerging markets in the US and Asia, were key targets of the company. 

On Australia, he maintained confidence in the regional racing market as ‘arguably the most mature of any on the planet’, with an emerging trend in the country of a younger demographic expressing interest in the sport – albeit with different content consumption habits.