In 2022, one of Entain’s signature UK sportsbook brands Coral, created the world's first free-to-join racehorse ownership club. This truly unique initiative began with four horses and four trainers, including West End Boy, who would go on to deliver the Coral Racing Club’s first win.
As part of a broader effort to promote horse racing and engage both existing and new fans, the Coral Racing Club was designed to provide the immersive experience of racehorse ownership, with an additional range of benefits including exclusive updates on the club's horses, behind-the-scenes access to trainers and stables, and ballots for free tickets to major racing events.
With horses trained by prominent trainers including Jonjo O’Neill and Joe Tizzard, enthusiasm for the club has since exceeded all expectations. The target of 50,000 members to be achieved within the first year was reached within six weeks, with the club now nearly five times that initial goal and still growing every single day.
Harder to quantify, however, are the thousands of unforgettable memories created with the growing stable of 12 racehorses, the unique ‘owner for the day’ experiences and more than £90,000 being shared in prize money among approximately a thousand members.
Coral Racing Club by Numbers
- 116 runners
- 11 winners
- 16 places
- £96,770 shared in prize money
- 230,850 members
Two years on, we reached 12 horses in training, and our members are more engaged and spending more time on the website than ever before. Without exception, they have all been brilliant. They love the access ownership gives them on a race day. We’ve had members drive from Glasgow to Plumpton to experience the thrills of owning a horse for a day, and another couple who flew in from Jersey for a visit to Kempton. And these tales of travelling long distances are not even that unusual!
The Owner for the Day experience provides a unique opportunity for racing fans to experience what it's like to be the owner for the day at the races. They can talk tactics with the jockey, be surrounded by the biggest names in racing, and hopefully get a completely new perspective on race day. They even take home a share of the prize money if the horse wins or places. It underpins the free to join vision for the Club, where members can experience all the highs and lows of owning a racehorse.
You can tell with the members it is not all about the winning, but the experience of being owners for the day, meeting the horse and jockeys and being closer to the action than ever before. The reaction from the members has exceeded our expectations and hopefully helped broaden the appeal of the sport.
Across Entain, this initiative has evolved in other ways. There is a separate Coral Racing Club for Colleagues, open to all Coral and Ladbrokes employees. It is its own club with similar perks but operated on a smaller level, with Hestina Hill currently trained by Ladbrokes ambassador Dan Skelton.
With the creation of our Coral Racing Club, we wanted to bring together our expertise and assets in horse racing and give customers something they might have never experienced. All betting operators sponsor horse races, but we wanted to do something different and unique. The popularity of our membership programme shows how popular horse racing can be when you engage fans in it, and we are proud of our role in that, but it also drives greater loyalty and engagement with the Coral brand so has a significant commercial purpose.
Coral Racing Club horses currently in training/breeding
- Aspire To Glory, 3-y-o gelding trained by Alice Haynes
- Cast No Shadow, 3-y-o gelding trained by Hugo Palmer
- Cave Article, 5-y-o gelding trained by Christian Williams
- Diamond Days, 4-y-o gelding trained by Joe Tizzard
- Hey Day Baby, 6-y-o mare trained by Jonjo O’Neill
- Lady Mendoza, 7-y-o mare trained by Rebecca Menzies
- Phoenix Of Dreams, 3-y-o gelding trained by John & Sean Quinn
- Ribbon Is A Dancer, 2-y-o trained by Hugo Palmer
- Rockstar Icon, 3-y-o gelding trained by Paul & Oliver Cole
- Sycamore, 7-y-o gelding trained by Scott Dixon
- Annie Mc, 10-y-o mare who has a foal
